Makes me think of another useful piece of advice... marry well. I married into upper middle class as well, and my wife has different and useful values. But yes

Makes me think of another useful piece of advice... marry well. I married into upper middle class as well, and my wife has different and useful values. But yes, the short-term thinking and resentment of education among the poor is kind of amazing and appalling. My father, an extremely intelligent and charismatic man, called them "educated mow-rons" (you really need to capture that exaggerated accent). He worked for rich men, but had nothing but contempt for them. If he had applied himself productively, he could have been very successful and wealthy. Instead, his life was a total failure due to shortsighted and self-destructive behavior. If there's one thing I learned from watching him, it's the difference between working hard and working smart. Now, I see my sister choosing to live in the redneck boondocks, constantly ground down by poverty and bad decisions. She's also very bright and could have been successful in another context, but she likes her country living. Unfortunately, she's surrounded by idiots. Everyone with that critical combination of talent and ambition simply leaves rural America and goes somewhere that they have a chance. Recently, she tried to talk me into investing in a business idea she had - something that, done right, could turn into a comfortable living. But instead, she and her (even brighter) daughter polished up a bunch of wishful-thinking hyperoptimized numbers to convince themselves they could make six figures at what I think is a $30k business, devised a terrible plan to get there, and then got all butt-hurt whenever my other sister and me tried to make it realistic. And of course, she resents me for not tossing her $10k to squander. Such is the life of poverty - even otherwise intelligent people get into a cycle of terrible decisions.