Economic policy and education certainly are main contributors but i think a BIG contributor is:
Our current culture influenced by the entertainment/media industry.
Look at many of the popular hip hop songs, the heroes that ARE push on us, and the media figures we idolize in music and even sometimes in sports
We see the finished product. We see the talented musician on the Grammys and think "wow" that person is so talented, but what we don't see is the hours they spend alone practicing hard day and night in the early parts of their lives.
Music tells int he lyrics about getting rich quick, robbing, killing, scoring the big contract etc.... nothing about hard work.
I work with people 18-26 all day long, most don't know the vallue of hard work, and the time you must spend to succeed at anything. In the 30's we had the depression, you had to work hard to eat, and those childeren of the depression took that work ethic into the 50's and 60's and now we lost that in the 90's and 2000's.
We are encourage by our society to not to work hard. We think success is something that just happens. It's not. It happens through long hours of hard work towards a worth while goal.
Many people at the poverty level don't know the value of hard work and saving money and our society isn't encouraging it.