Broadband Cherry Picking → Rich vs Poor?

I work for Charter out of the St Louis, MO area. Much of my work is the "poor" neighborhoods. The system could use an upgrade there, but there isn't any money in it. Upgrade the system and the amount of Video/HSI/Telephony subscribers will not increase regardless of what we offer (well Telephony after SBC cuts them off becuase they won't pay the bill). When I go into houses to resovle issues, I'm dealing with roaches, nasty conditions, the women complaing how the $500 Link card isn't enough each month to buy groceries, and the men (healthy and between 20-40 years old) throwing a football/baseketball around complaining how they are being kept "down" by whoever...although they somehow can afford that big screen HDTV, new rims for the car, and the baggies of bud that are spread out on the kitchen table.
Poor? Because they won't get off their butts and start trying to better themselves. I work with guys content to make just the minimum that they can get paid, I on the other hand have been pushing to learn every aspect of field work so I can move up the ladder. Oppurtunity is knocking at the door. Freaking answer it.

Verizon isn't excluding just the poor, they want to wire to more expensive neighborhoods, while skipping the people who want to pay for their services, which includes lower, middle and upper income families. I used to install myself and I been where you been. You can add to that list going into upscale communities and walking into a 4000 square foot home and there is no tv but they want HDTV or HSD on computers running Win 95/98, middle income people who have dirty kids and clothing up and down the halls with dog shet out back where the tap is, etc.... I been there.... I also been in low income communities where people who just want cable tv for their children, after they got an "A" in school and want to do something nice for them and are really doing what is necessary to move up and out of a bad area.... But, eventually, most people will get better services, people just have to be patient, and if Verizon or anyone else does not want to wire "lower income" areas, they will lose money that SOME people are willing to pay...