The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die

Most people tend to see the poor as either responsible for their own problems or victims of their circumstances. The first is known as the character flaw theory, which argues that the poor have a different culture that does not foster the positive values of hard work, accountability, and self-reliance. The opposite view is the environmental theory, which argues that poverty itself causes life problems (i.e., that poor environments cause poor outcomes, and a lack of resources leads to a lack of opportunity for the poor). Both theories are partly right and partly wrong, and both stem from the age-old nature versus nurture debate. Payne argues that this dichotomy misses a crucial point:

“Nature and nurture always work together, because what we have inherited genetically as humans is not a rigid set of behaviors, like those that send fruit flies fluttering toward a light. They are, rather, tendencies to react to changes in the environment in particular ways” (61).

In other words, we need to understand how human nature prepares us to act in rich or poor environments and high or low levels of inequality. Then we will understand why someone raised in a wealthy family thinks and acts differently than someone brought up in a poor family.