The purpose of this paper is to illuminate that acquisition of knowledge, positive attitudes, skills and identity formation are by-products of primary socialisation and secondary interaction with people and institutions from all walks of family life, environmental experiences, and lifestyles. Based on the first phase of a qualitative case study on the socialisation and learned identities of people in poverty in two (one rural, one urban) selected areas of Botswana, the author agrees with the findings of the study and the title of this journal article that the existential socialisation and experiences of poor people from early childhood have shaped who they are. Miller (2002) echoes similar sentiments that poverty is both structural and individual. These perceptions of poverty include construction of how they are socialised to see themselves, the visions (or lack of visions) they have for themselves to make transitions from poverty to non-poverty, acceptance or non-acceptance of poverty, the search for options if any, their thought processes, and development of poverty identity belief systems. Excessive downward mobility below the Poverty Datum Line that respondents said they experienced as a result of the declining role of subsistence agriculture as a source of livelihood is an important factor in explaining why the poor could not make a transition from poverty to non-poverty. (Contains 1 table.)