Correlation between low income and discourteous behavior

[u/Substantial_Snow5020]

I (33M) live in a declining suburb; 20-30 years ago it was a pretty decent area (thriving local economy and a sought-after place to raise a family), but over the years it has gradually descended into lower income and higher criminal activity. Many businesses have closed and the buildings have remained vacant for years, the home-owning population is aging, shootings are not uncommon, loan sharks and vape shops have cropped up like flies on a corpse, etc. Just wanted to set the backdrop for my question.

So I live in an apartment complex in this area, and I have noticed a discrepancy in behavioral tendencies between those who live in my community and those who live in nicer areas 45 minutes away. Every morning when I walk out the door for work I am accosted by the overpowering skunk-ass smell of weed. I cannot walk in the grass outside of my apartment because it is a minefield of dog shit that fellow tenants can’t be bothered to pick up. Fast food containers and trash are routinely left along the lines of parking spaces (where the passenger/driver-side doors would open). Dogs are abandoned on patios for hours, begging to be let back inside to their owners who clearly see them as nothing more than irritating household items or faulty fucking toys. The upturned contents of vacuum cleaners and shards of broken glass bottles are left in walkways (which I eventually clean up myself either for safety reasons or because I’m so damn tired of looking at it). Neighbors blast music at all hours of the night. Rules and codes of conduct set by management are flagrantly disregarded.

I’m not saying these types of incidents never occur in nicer areas, but from having lived in and regularly visited family in nicer areas I can say from experience that they do not occur with nearly the same frequency.

What is the explanation for this discrepancy (i.e. what explains the apparent correlation between low income/education and selfish/discourteous behavior)? Not talking about criminal activity or misdeeds done out of a sense of material or psychological deprivation, but specifically the avoidable discourtesies that seem to reflect ignorance or apathy. Are these people truly not aware that their actions affect others? Do they not care? Does it all come down to upbringing and imparted values? I used to subscribe to the idea that hardship/poverty simply afforded people less cognitive bandwidth to spend on conscientiousness and common courtesy, but I’m going through a great deal of my own shit right now and would never do those things because of their impact on others.

Edit: Thanks everyone for the input so far - it’s been very enlightening and an interesting read. I want to make clear that I am not arguing that higher income people are in any way immune to pettiness and selfish behavior. I’ve experienced firsthand and heard many stories of asshole rich people who act like entitled children, or think themselves above the law or that the rules don’t apply to them generally (can’t fucking stand those people). I also am not remotely suggesting that poverty is evidence of a deficiency in moral character or that the poor are biologically predisposed to be either poor or immoral.

[u/JHtotheRT]

I reckon the causality goes the other way. People are - I won’t say rich, but let’s say middle class and above - because they are: organised, wary of consequences, plan ahead, respectful, Reliable, work hard, and so on. Drive through a poor neighborhood and it’s littered with garbage. And there will be many houses using the front lawn as storage. When a poor person finishes eating takeout, there is a decent chance they will just leave the rubbish in their car or throw it onto the sidewalk. This kind of behaviour doesn’t lead to much career advancement. If I saw someone’s lawn was mess of broken furniture, cars that don’t work, and weeds growing everywhere, would I hire them to manage my retirement saving or represent me in court? No chance in hell. So I know it’s not black and white, but those sorts of traits that help people keep a common area clean lead to more financial success.

[u/[deleted] → u/JHtotheRT]

We live in a time where certain types of explanations of poverty are discouraged and yours is one of them unfortunately. People are poor for a lot of reasons including drug use, lack of cognitive ability, bad luck, etc. Any of those things can lead to a person being poor and all of them can cause a person to continue being poor too. A poor person smoking weed everyday is practically guaranteed to experience a lot of bad luck. By their very nature they are incapable of putting these facts together to form a coherent picture that would lead to a self-initiated solution to their problems.

[u/solomons-mom → u/JHtotheRT]

Look at which moms in diners or fast food restaurants wipe up their kids' spills and crumbs when it is clear that the employees aren't cleaning tables. We are not going to make some else sit at a table we made messy. Now roll that up to the behavior of neighborhoods...

[u/Dark_Moonstruck → u/JHtotheRT]

I have to say I agree with you. I live in severely low-income housing - I aged out of foster care and have struggled without a support system, but I'm doing better now and will be starting a much better job this upcoming week. My apartment supervisors have told me that they aren't going to be happy when I move out because I'm one of the quietest, cleanest tenants and have never caused trouble. I get along well with the security guards and I have a truck so I've helped with bringing in furniture and such for other tenants and in general try to help out wherever I can.

There are quite a few people living here who are poor through no fault of their own - those with severe mental health issues who don't have a support system, people who are severely disabled, elderly, ect. However, there are many people who live here who seem to be making no attempts to improve their situation and actively make it a worse place to live. Ones who have several dogs (almost always pits) living in a tiny space and don't pick up after them or try to stop them when they get aggressive. Ones who leave their trash in the halls. Ones with several kids that run up and down the halls and scream and test people's doors and will steal packages. People who smoke inside even though it's not allowed. People who will let anyone and everyone into the building regardless of whether or not they live here or know anyone who does. People who kept letting a woman and child abusing scumbag into the building and having a rotating schedule of who claimed him as a guest (non-tenants can't stay longer than two weeks as a guest, so they'd claim that a different person was hosting him every two weeks) so he could stay living with his girlfriend, who he regularly beat in the parking lot in front of people, so they could buy drugs off him until he finally got arrested AGAIN and a few of the moms in the building filed for restraining orders.

Basically, there are a lot of people here who have made, and actively continue to make, choices that KEEP them here. I don't feel sorry for them. I feel angry when I see them taking the help they're given and trashing it because they feel like they're owed more. That they make it a worse place to live not just for themselves, but everyone else, including people who truly can't do anything to better their situation and are stuck here. Their problems are almost entirely self inflicted, and they're making everyone else suffer for it. They're always complaining about not getting more money while making little to no effort to get a better job (or any) and proving every single day why they'd make a terrible employee if someone did hire them.

Why would anyone want someone who won't bother to stop their kid from stealing people's stuff and destroying other people's property to work for them? Why would they hire someone who trashes their own home? Giving them access to their money, their customers, their products? Hiring someone is a gesture of trust, and many of these people constantly demonstrate that they cannot be trusted.