She isn’t wrong, but also, the people who believe this nonsense were never going to make it out of poverty anyway. The people capable of pulling themselves out see this defeatism as a challenge and as proof that they don’t have much competition.

Most people “trapped” in poverty seek this sort of sentiment to confirm their beliefs that it is hopeless to even try. They surround themselves with people who believe this and reject anyone who tries to tell them they aren’t actually trapped because believing there is hope would require them to take responsibility for their situation and do something about it.

The problem today is that this hopelessness is being weaponized into the envy that drives communists. We used to reject that sort of mass envy as a culture and now the dominant cultural forces encourage it.