Maggie's Farm

Perception poverty seems to be part of human nature, not just ill-trained and unspiritual Americans. It is not fully rational, but may be related to small-tribal groups, where an individual having more than others signaled that something had gone awry in justice and distribution for the whole tribe, which could rapidly become catastrophic. It's not easy to just talk people out of it and tell them they aren't supposed to feel that way because they've got other good things. There's some hard-wiring involved. This may be why most religions spend considerable effort of training its people not to feel that way - because it is natural but irrational and a source of discontent.

The urban poor do have a significant downside of dangerous bad neighborhoods. The density of pathology is greater now than fairly recent times. In the late 1940's almost 50% of America was below the poverty line. Poor but respectable was not mere possible then (it certainly still is), it was common. Ethnic neighborhoods had many people who had not yet found how to make their way in America, but were still known to be decent people. The percentages are different now, and in some places mothers must fear for the influences on their children from every side.

I was going to link to previous writings, but I've written on it so much over the years that aI didn't find a single example. Come on over and search under "poverty" if you're interested.