In the United States, at least, poverty tends to be concentrated geographically in inner-cities and rural areas instead of being evenly spread out. This would seem to indicate fairly conclusively that location and environment affect opportunity and wealth more so than an individual willingness to work hard. In fact, being born into an environment of concentrated poverty like this molds your mental state and perception of the world, to the extent that the idea of breaking out of poverty may not always even appear as a possibility, thus discouraging you from even believing that hard work might pay off.