Well, I would generally have to agree with you about the people in the Sudan, 6. What I was driving at was more this kind of idea...

A person who is hampered by negative ideas about life and about self that have been planted in them by their parents and their society when they were young and impressionable is at a great disadvantage, regardless of whether they were born in material abundance or poverty. If you think the World is cruel, then it will continue to appear cruel to you. If you think no one can be trusted, then you will trust no one. If you think you are basically worthless, then you will live a miserable life and have no confidence to take advantage of good opportunities...or you may become a criminal or abuser of others.

Take the example of Howard Hughes. He had some negative ideas implanted in him at a very young age about germs and disease...and despite his advantages in life, which were tremendous, his paranoia about germs eventually destroyed him. He was living in a kind of psychological poverty.

That can be just as crippling as physical poverty. They are both conditions we ought to strive to eliminate in society, by whatever means possible. We must first feed and protect the body. We must also feed and protect the heart and mind. The second is a more subtle business than the first, though the first is clearly a given in any rational, responsible society.