re: Is poverty the common denominator of every major social problem?

Dude you are getting way too personal. Many of the people in poverty are quite literally stupid. I don't even mean that as an insult - just a literal statement to their intelligence, as mentioned earlier in the thread. They have a severely low IQ and would never be able to do the things your dad did. Not just "too lazy" but mentally and physically unable to even dream of doing the things your dad did.

You're being very obtuse to think only of your dad and apply that to poverty across America.

Take a drive down one of the poverty stricken streets of BR and start talking to the people on the porches. Come back and honestly tell me they have anywhere near the intelligence, physical/mental ability, etc. to do what your dad did.

The bootstraps mentality tends to only consider people of similar mental capacity as those who believe it. -- people with a decent level of intelligence and a healthy body/mind. Many people in poverty do not have any of those things. You're acting like its a bunch of bright, able-minded, able-bodied people skipping around their shanties, not working anywhere of value intentionally.

Really, it is a bunch of low IQ, mentally unsound people.. who can't contribute any of the things you're asking even if they had the ability to decide they wanted to.

You're talking about "sleeping at the business" in a conversation about people who sometimes cannot string words together to form grammatically coherent statements.