Status Drives Poverty?
A book on poor single moms, discussing why moms break up with guys:
Conflicts over money do not usually erupt simply because the man cannot find a job or because he doesn’t earn as much as someone with better skills or education. Money usually becomes an issue because he seems unwilling to keep at a job for any length of time, usually because of issues related to respect. Some of the jobs he can get don’t pay enough to give him the self-respect he feels he needs, and others require him to get along with unpleasant customers and coworkers, and to maintain a submissive attitude toward the boss. (more; HT Bryan)
I suspect much of what makes some cultures more successful than others is how they help folks to avoid seeing unpleasant interactions as direct challenges to their status.
Telling people that they are the chosen people, and that God loves them so long as they don't let meat and milk mix (along with a thousand other rituals), is very psychologically comforting and enables them to endure the scorn of their neighbors when they engage in the mercantile and financial disputes their neighbors despise, and to endure patiently the occasional despoiling by the local princes, rather than feeling compelled to rise in futile rebellion.
If narcissism means "someone who doesn't want to be a fry cook at McDonalds", then I am a narcissist.