What is the reason for poverty?

Answer 1

1) increase number of people
2) the decrease of needed resources
3) the increase of illegal immegrants
4) the increase of importing rather than producing inside the country
5) insufficient planning from responsible people

Answer 2

Interesting question. I'm answering it as much to get my own thoughts in order as to "educate" (not the best word) you. There are 2 excellent books on the subject: "Wealth & Poverty" by George Gilder, and "How the West Grew Rich" by Nathan Rosenberg et al. First, poverty is not a "thing", it is a social condition wherein a group within a society live without the normal amenities enjoyed by the rest of that society. The reason they don't have them is simple: they can't afford them. They can't afford them because they don't have the skills/education necessary to make themselves sufficiently valuable to their society to command a larger income. They don't have such skills/education because, in those societies where poverty is most apparent, the ruling "class" doesn't provide a universal educational system. It has been noted that the societies with the richest people (on a global comparison) inevitably have the poorest (likewise on a global comparison). The quick answer as to why is that the ruling "class" doesn't care that poverty exists; they see no need to give up some of their wealth to alter the situation. They are not threatened by poverty, and feel that change might, in fact, create a threat. This is the case in certain African countries, and certainly the case in North Korea. In the U.S. we have a unique situation wherein those living in poverty have somehow rejected the concept of personal responsibility for their own self-worth, and therefore reject education. This is a "cultural" phenomenon, and is not to be confused with the political causes seen elsewhere. Hope this helps. Get back to me if you have any specific questions.

Answer 3

There are a million reasons, the first being that there has to be something at either extreme. There are rich people, there are poor people, and that's where the comparison comes from. The government bases poverty levels on modern rates of pay and living expenses. If you fall into the lowest bracket, you are considered impoverished. Some people were born at an impoverished level and it is extremely hard to bite and claw your way even to the middle class level (I know this from experience). Some people lose their jobs, make poor decisions, wind up in the hole over debt, wind up with circumstances working against them and just can't make it, etc. Anything. Everything. You can't pin it down on just one thing. The stupid and lazy will also fall into poverty by default. But there is no one thing you can fix to make poverty go away.

Answer 4

An important distinction:

Absolute poverty and relative poverty

Absolute poverty entails the inability to secure the real needs (real physcial will-die-without-it needs) of a human being across some time period. A huge chunk of humanity faces absolute poverty.

Relative poverty is the state of being rather poor when compared to the folks around you. This could have nothing at all to do with absolute poverty.

So why is there poverty?

Relative poverty exists whenever different people have different levels of wealth (and are around each other enough to notice)
All solutions to it are pretty awful, and antithetical to freedom.

Absolute poverty exists when a person's opportunities are insufficient to provide a path to a minimum level of well-being or they fail to take that path.
When it is a case of individual failure, there is little society can do without screwing up the incentives people need to be productive.

In the modern world, the lack of sufficient opportunities to gain access to food, shelter, cloathing etc. are the consequence (almost entirely) of terrible political arrangements.
Given how cheaply people can create a bushel of grain, it is only criminal exploitation that keeps a person from being able to earn enough to buy one in very little time.
This sort of horrible institutional arrangement pervades much of the underdeveloped world, and keeps it in poverty.

Sub-saharan Africa actually often produces less output one year to the next. Why? Awful politics, and the resulting lack of opportunites to be productive and earn a good living.

Bottom line: absolute poverty in the face of opportunity is a human (individual or cultural) failing, absolute poverty due to lack of opportunity is a social / political failing.

Relative poverty is something we should take far less seriously, at least until absolute poverty is a thing of the past. "Thou shall not covet.."

Answer 5

Poverty is relative. The "median" poor person in the United States lives in a trailer, drives a 15 year old truck, and bitches because they can only afford basic cable.

A middle class person in a less wealthy country may be scraping a small patch of ground trying to coax enough out of it to feed their family. Something like 60%-70% of the planet lives on $2/day.


So strictly speaking, there will always relative "poverty" because there will always be somewhat of a class system in a society; it is how we have evolved.

Speaking globally, however, the "poor" in rich countries are better off because they tend to have incentives for businesses to get rich.........and as a former President of Peru so nicely put it, "You can't redistribute poverty."

Answer 6

Too many competing subgroups. Quote from "God III": "Ever see an up, without a down?" I was about five when I saw the movie, and I understood that, so it stays with me.
Anyway, here will always be competition, and with that, comes exploitation. Bigwigs skimming everyounce of cream tehy can get.
And communism promised everyone a job. So many Soviets were hapless alcoholics, because there was nothing to strive for. They could be the worst person on the face of the earth and still have a job, and they could be the best person ever, and get nowhere further.
This is natural.
A shame, but there's no system that supports us all equally.

Answer 7

Because poverty is very much the natural state of man. You didn't come into this world in a fur coat and plugged into an iPod, did you? It takes an enormous amount of effort to create any situation in which people are NOT living in poverty.

The surprising thing is that there is anyone at all who does NOT live in poverty.

Answer 8

Lack of education and resources that are not available to low income individuals and families. Once you are in poverty it is very difficult to get out of for a couple reason's one is education is expensive and another is poverty affects people's drive to be better. They feel like they are poor, and give up.

Answer 9

Some really good answers here but might I add that in a capitalist economic system (which pretty much pertains to the whole world), it's a "zero sum game," as the recently departed Milton Friedman would say.

Also, there times when people do not take full advantage of opportunities available to them and do wind up poor.

Answer 10

I think there are many causes, but I believe it's a vicious never-ending cycle. Once you are poor, it is EXTREMLY hard to get out of poverty. Read "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich if you are interested in this subject, particularly women and poverty.

Answer 11

From the perspective of my 62 years and all I've seen:

Poverty is the result of undereducation, lack of ambition, overpopulation...

being born in the wrong place...as in lack of resources in any way you care to define a resource...natural or otherwise.

absence of hope...when, no matter how motivated you are, there is nothing you can do for lack of something to do it with.

lack of/or bad parenting...you would be surprised at the number of people out there with great potential, who were never mentored by their primary caregivers, their parents.

irresponsibility from several perspectives:

1. there are a lot of poor people out there who are poor, only because they refuse to, or don't know how to manage their money correctly...as in the minute they get some money, they have to find a place to spend it.

2. people who continue to have children when they don't have the means to support them in an adequate fashion.

3. lacking the ability to commit...whether to a relationship, or to a goal, some people just can't stick with anything. A lot of kids are forced into poverty because their parents can't or won't ride out the rough spots....as for committing to a goal, well, when the going gets hard, too many stop going.

I feel sorriest for the kids. They have no control over their circumstances.