OT I find myself putting on a slight Asian accent when talking to Asians lol

I think that people are different. Those people you speak with do have a different personality than you, obviously. I wouldn't say they are any less, or have a "poor" personality. They just have different struggles than you. Some people are fortunate to not have to worry about money. Others aren't. I wish that wasn't the case but it is. I do agree that people are products of their environment. If you don't have much money, you won't live in the best neighborhood and you wont be in the best schools. I have experienced those struggles and lived in those neighborhoods and went to those schools. I graduated from high school, I just recently graduated from college am now getting my masters. I am still poor, like most college students. So I guess you can give me the title as "poor". But I find it very insulting to speak about less privileged people as if they are thugs or inferior. I don't think "poor" is the word you mean. Or at least I hope not.

I can't say I've had that problem to be honest. The only time I seem to be fake around people is at my job and that is because they expect me to be professional. In reality most people their annoy the hell out of me because they are lazy and fake.

so you say every person on earth has the ability not to be poor ?

Ryan, you just hang around the wrong people.

i'm broke poor, with no job or motivation. i stay to myself with the exception of people i know. i have a very dirty mind, i'm overly sarcastic all time, and say very little to everyone, while speaking my mind at any given time, and not biting my tongue.

i curse, but not on the regular, and the occasional complicated handshake is just customary, but simple when in a rush.

the random guys i know, i don't relate to,mostly do to the topic's of conversation and times.

long story short. no i never felt a need to act thuggish with poor people. or people in the hood homie.

if you can't relate, then don't hang with them, and keep your conversations short. or just be you, and if you're there friend, then they'll understand.

i had a friend tell me, me and him had a different friendship then our other friends because of the type of person i am. they can horse around, but i'm the conversationalist. the one that makes sense. the intelligent one lol.

i wasn't sure how to take it considering how sarcastic i am, and the nature of........see the thing is. i take material given to me,and run with it. it could be something that just happened to you, and make a running joke about it that will likely never end.

I know lots of educated poor people, almost all of them graduate students who can talk your ear off an any given topic... intelligently. They also work 60 to 80 hour weeks to bring in less money than someone serving coffee in a doughnut shop part time. Poverty does not equal lazy does not equal dumb.

This is clearly anecdotal evidence. I meet plenty of poor people trying to go to college and trying hard. They got a massive hill to climb. Some sleep in there car, only to end up with massive college debt and no work. I'm not sure where you are at but it is not like that around me, yes in the gang ridden areas. I'm not sure what you consider poor but around me plenty of people are poor and they work there ass off and don't drink. I'm doing fine but I feel sorry for others. My brother in law makes about $13 hr, don't drink, does scrapping after work and my sister works. After all this, they barely make their bills and have no time to even think of college. What most don't understand is there is a sh-t load of working poor in this country. The middle class pay from the 80's would equal about 90,000 a year average including inflation. However average pay now days is around 45,000. So people used to be able to take trips, do things, they had disposable money. However you got people on the right that basically support things like, Pay me less, less insurance please, lease unions to help me get less pay, give all  my  money to the rich. The rich is taking us all to the bank. Back in the day you got paid for your work, today you barely get enough to survive.

I think you're generalizing a bit and thinking too broadly. Poor people doesn't seem to be your problem. The 'hood' seems to be your problem. Poor people don't necessarily live or come from the 'hood'. Living in a small town blue collar community where people are 'poor' like somewhere in the bible belt would render you different experiences for example.

There is a difference and there are all types of poor people. In my case, I grew up in the barrio (Spanish neighborhood/ghetto), but I didn't have problems interacting with people. My race was more likely going to be an an issue because I was one of the handful of white students in a mixed minority (mostly hispanic) inner city school. I'm also female, so that might affect my perspective a little bit. I think girls get by more by chatting and socializing, but I tended to get along more with guys too since I'm a geek and a tomboy...

The only time 'hood' mentality became a problem was around middle school when the gangs had more influence on the kids and people were scared of them. There were other neighborhoods that I didn't live in that had gang problems. Those kids went to my school and there was a lot of pressure for people to look big by saying you will beat them up and I often got threatened to 'come meet them at the bus stop' or else. I told them what sane person would go alone to meet a bunch of kids at a bus stop who wants to fight them... they kept saying stuff just to say it, but then quickly shut up. Middle school just blows in general because of the peer pressure. Those kids that were trying to be cool had changed their behavior when they reached HS. The 'thugs', the true hoodlums had completely dropped out or got sent to the trouble school by ninth grade... I think because our school system was not afraid to tell them to shape up or gtfo.

Beyond that, I get along with people of all walks of life. I think it depends on the area... I just moved back from the East coast and I had been living there 7 years. I didn't like it because it seemed like although the area was 'hoity toity' by MD standards and nicer, people had a vague sense of how the world worked outside of them, the holidays/life in general was very commercialized and nobody had a sense or humor or all their ideas of 'fun' were incredibly boring... also, way too damn expensive for "paradise". $1000 at least for a 1 bedroom apt... I could get a house for that in a decent part of town in the city here. To each their own I guess.

If you want somewhere that is really similar to what you're talking about, look into Baltimore's social problems. I would say it has a lot of the characteristics of what you're talking about. There's definitely plenty of hoods there and you kinda have the self-perpetuated cycle of people being held down by their own ignorance and the system. It's partially true, but then it partially isn't the actual obstacles. It's ignorant to say 100% of the time it is true that someone can just escape. I think if you don't know how the world really works, then it's a problem... when I went to college up north, the kids there didn't seem to know jack shit about the world outside of what mother and father could afford... I would argue that entitlement is a problem that runs in all social classes.

I know a woman who came from (one of) the lowest castes in India, from a family that didn't have adequate shelter and regularly went without food, and is now a well educated software developer, earns a good living, and is supporting her family back home. The challenges she faced, and her parents faced, are unimaginable and make the "trials" of the poor in western developed nations laughable.

Not everyone on Earth, but for most Americans and citizens of developed countries, yes. I should have been more specific.