However, I believe that giving resources to an underperforming community replaces a culture of poverty with a culture of dependency. Ultimately, a culture of dependency is worse than a culture of poverty because it robs the community of its identity. By changing the rules within the culture, addiction creates a limited mindset where people strive to do only the minimum. Therefore, the idea of ​​bridging the gap between a culture of poverty and society becomes confusing, as there must be a way to treat those excluded by poverty and those who are part of the larger society as equals. The foregoing raises the question of whether the viewer must behave in some way to change the people of the culture; i.e. – the viewer should try to improve the work ethic, optimism and ability to follow the rules of the inhabitants. Examining ways to bridge the gap between poverty and society, we find that the solution is not easy. There are myriad structural issues including economics and identity that play a role in culture. Generation after generation seems to fall prey to a culture of poverty and so the viewer must determine how to help these people out of the abyss. Furthermore, the assumptions that observers place on poverty disfigure the very meaning of culture