I have a 20% philosophy about anything to do with populations of people. It seems that about 20% will always do something, 20% will never do the same thing and the remaining 60% sometimes do and sometimes don't.
For example- 20% of the population will never lie no matter what, 20% will always lie and the remainder will go either way.
It's unfortunately the negative 20% that get all the resources- the 20% who won't learn at school, the 20% who steal egregiously, the 20% who drive repeatedly drunk, the 20% always making poor choices at every turn. The only time their damage stops is when they are too old or too sick to cause trouble anymore. They never change and never admit that, although everyone else seems to cope while they don't, it can possibly be their own fault. It is always someone else's fault. They are just unlucky in their own minds or, more likely, people pick on them.
Now the competent 20% can take care of themselves, the 60% middle road people make mistakes but learn from them. But it's the incompetent 20% who take up the majority of the police time, the emergency services, who are unprepared in any situation, who take up the court funding, etc.
The problem is that social engineers see this phenomenon and think that they can change the problem 20% into the better coping 60% with a little help. They see little differences, only occasional issues. But what social engineers fail to acknowledge is that this problem 20% sees themselves as right, realistic and honest, even in their dishonesty. For them, everyone else has it wrong so they see no reason, no matter how badly their life functions, to change.
I think we need to assume that the problem 20 are born to screw up, simply stop putting resources into trying to change them, and switch the resources into guiding the 60% at an earlier age so they can learn from their mistakes sooner. Spend on the problem people only what is necessary to protect everyone else from their incompetence and let them go. You can't fix them. They will never take responsibility.