I have a book suggestion for you if you are interested in learning more about this. I grew up in Scotland and I am very familiar with what you are talking about.

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Bottom-Worldview-Makes-Underclas...

For anyone who wants to understand the mindset underlying poverty (whether cause, or affect, or a mixture of both), I recommend "Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass" by Theodore Dalrymple. He's British psychologist who spent his life working with the poor, and came away with some insightful observations about the culture of this population.

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Bottom-Worldview-Makes-Underclas...

If you're interested in this topic, two other books on the same subject from very different angles:

Life at the Bottom by Theodore Dalrymple https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1566635055

Eichman in Jerusalam by Hannah Arendt https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0143039881/

No offense, phillmv, but you strike me as a serious person with an open mind.

If this is true, for only 62 cents you can get a copy of this book (http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Slum-Salford-Quarter-Century/d...), which describes a (low-crime) Edwardian slum from the perspective of someone who grew up there and later became a sociologist (author: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Roberts_(author)). You'll have to shell out $5 for prison psychologist Theodore Dalrymple's view (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Bottom-Worldview-Makes-Underclass...) of their great-grandchildren.

If you think the difference between these societies can be reduced to the availability and/or legality of intoxicants, you have a very one-track mind. Take another hit on the bong and perhaps your perspective will expand. Oh, and the subjects of both studies are predominantly white. So in case you're a racist, that's not an option.