The Poor of Your City Take Precendence

The full quote (a Jewish proverb) :
"In the case of a Jew and a non-Jew, the Jew
takes precedence; a poor person and a wealthy person, the poor person takes precedence; a poor person of your own city and a poor person of another city, the poor of your city take precedence."
(The English parallel: Charity begins at home)

Just some points that crossed my mind regarding this...

* I can testify, that personally the easiest thing is to agree. It makes sense. I do care for my close environment first. I do care for my friends, the school, whatever is happening right here and right now the most. In school they always tried to prove us this - by showing us how the newspapers always report on different accidents and incidents abroad and you are always more compassionate towards the Israeli or the Jew.

* I wonder what the origins of this feeling are. Are they rooted so deeply in us because of our nationalistic education? (and I'm not talking about Israeli education specifically, but generally about most of us) why do we have different degrees of caring and compassion for different people?

* I can think of some reasons. Maybe our mind requires this kind of categorization. Arabs (in my case) are usually "against us" - so we care less about them. Americans are generally supportive of us, that means we should probably be in their favour most of the time. If we had to judge every single person individually in order to make up our mind or form some sort of impression we would probably go crazy (and won't have enough time.)

* I understand cultural identification that makes us feel closer to different groups of people. Yet one thing strikes me - the randomness of this identification. Had I been born an Arab I would probably place Jews or Israelis at the bottom of my compassion list. What a small coincidence determines something we feel so strongly about!

* Finally I want to look at the Economic aspect of this saying, for it does not only talk of moral support or cultural fraternity. It talks about the poor. It talks about people who disadvantaged or underprivileged - and prioritizes who should be helped first, who is more equal or more important.
And that makes me think - is this attitude what causes the enormous gaps between let us say Western countries and Eastern Countries? Developed Economies and Undeveloped Economies?
How did a manage to grow having my quite normal, safe life with abundant food - so used to this being so normal while in other parts of the world people are starving? What causes us today to see this is kind of normal, or distant?
Has this maybe something to do with this attitude, this proverb...? Our affiliations...?