The real problem isn't that people are poor (they lack money), but that people are broke (they have debts they can't clear). Those debts can be actual money ow

The real problem isn't that people are poor (they lack money), but that people are broke (they have debts they can't clear). Those debts can be actual money owed or other essential expenses (i.e. insurance, repairs, education, etc). Once you are broke, then paying off your power bill won't make a big difference, because you will still have to fight off the credit card company ... and you will still be broke. Think of it in terms of a GPA. If your GPA is 1.5 (poor), you still have an incentive to work hard and raise it to 2.0. But if your GPA is 0.3 (broke), then even if you work hard you still won't pass. So why bother? People do drop out for other reasons (drug issues, mental health, and so on) but the article raises a very important point - people drop out when they are broke and can't make ends meet (in the near future) even if they work hard.