I'm not too surprised, the mental composure of poor people does seem different than that of non-poor human beings. They probably operate on a more basic level.

Please don't take this as offense, but it does seem logical that if you operate on limited supplies you'd go for a very primal - just survive today mode. I'm pretty sure ANY person that has no fallback to rely upon would go into same mode.

I heard that steady supply of cash does help them a lot. Like a monthly wage. That way you can say, ok if I skip this trash meal and go learn something, maybe I can live more decently.