I think the point is - scary threat isn't scary, because such people already feel the constant threat of poverty every day. Being regularly pumped full of cortisol over worries of simply surviving, there are no fucks left to give when additional threats are piled on.
This will be my 3rd. But the first one mostly influenced my parents. We just felt shitty when our parents couldn't afford anything for us during Xmas. That was also the time my parents told us Santa wasn't real which made sense why the asshole in class always got the good shit.