what is the cause of poverty ?

Question

laziness? its so disgusting that so many of you actually said laziness!
last time I checked the poor are the ones who work the most!

Answer 1

corruption, conflict, or disaster...

Answer 2

Poverty usually has more than one cause. Poverty is all over the world. Poverty in the United States is caused from inequality. The poor do not get equal educations. Their food supply is not as healthy. Their health care is not as good. The poor in the Unites States are bombarded with images in media that give them false ideas about a good quality life. The poor generally are stuck in cycle of trying to survive in a country that is owned by a few elite individuals that drive the price of everything on the market. Our government caters to the elite and protects them. They are our nations untouchables. They run things. Most people are basically their peasants that are trying to survive. The middle class in America is shrinking. The upper classes are small. The elite are the smallest percentage. Poverty is caused by the rich. The rich desire the best and this causes inequality for those that can not obtain those things. Yes, we have schools , but the inequality in the education system is what presents many economic barriers. Oh, yeah a lack of compassion and humanity for mankind might be the ultimate driving force.

Answer 3

Anyone who says that the poor have only themselves to blame is saying exactly what US society has programmed them to believe. Actually, it's not fair to single out the US here -- let's say any country based on capitalism.

You're absolutely right to point out that the poor work so hard without ever getting ahead. The minimum wage is lower today in real dollars than it was 30 years ago. Today, it takes two working parents just to get by.

Don't be suckered in the fear button that Lou Dobbs & his ilk press: blame the immigrants. Blaming someone poorer than you & me for the problems of society is a long-time trick of the rich to keep the middle class and the poor from getting along, sharing notes, and fighting back.

Instead, shall we look at what large corporations get away with? 1) Cutting jobs and moving plants (or outsourcing) to third-world countries.
2) cutting health benefits
3) paying little, if any taxes
4) offering crappy, minimum-wage jobs with no job security
.....this list goes on & on.

And the government doesn't help the average people -- they've removed all kinds of safety nets that were set up for the poor like disability, job training, unemployment insurance. Instead the government is devoted to helping the corporations do the things I mentioned above out of belief that what's good for corporations is what's good for America. What nonsense.

Poverty is the result of a socio-economic system that favors wealth inequality. This is a zero-sum game where there MUST be losers -- the poor.

Answer 4

Poverty is caused by many circumstances, most of the time a combination of inability to pervceive and respond to the situation, and generally dependent on the personal ability of the subject. The argument on who became rich and who become poor is best illustrated by a social experiment in Tibet some 20 years ago, during the time when the Chinese communist government begun to relax its communal ownership of production over a community of sheep herders.

The communally owned herd (numbering thousands) was redistributed to the community. Each family were equally given 100 sheeps. That means these families started with equal opportunities of 100 sheeps each. After a year, some of the families have more than a hundred sheeps while others less than a hundred. And some numbers of families lost all their sheep herd and become hired hands of families who have amassed great number of sheeps.

So this example of all families (or individual) who started with equal economic opportunity and ends up being unequal in just a matter of a year illustrate that poverty or wealth is really dependent on the circumstances and personal ability.

Answer 5

poverty in which sense? around 90% of people in this world are poor, not because they don't have money, but because something more important is lacking in their lives. even if a person is 'poor' then too that person can be the richest person in the world if s/he lives every moment, knows that life is not money but something much more than that, that 'money' was probably invented by the biggest idiot in this world.

if you are saying poor in the money sense then well there really is no reason. since industrialisation has started this world has become like a race. someone has to be last. someone has to be poor if another has to be rich. there is not enough money in this world and there would never be. its not as if poor people are lazy or uneducated or i dunno what other reason.
though i really hope this race would end and it becomes a tie so that nobody is last, nobody is poor. hope is what this worlds spinning on! (for some money, not hope, but everyones different)

Answer 6

It can be many reasons...i love flakes answer....I think also it could be economic, social, government reasons, ...there are so many reasons....maybe there is a poor "consciousness" that keeps perpetrating itself in millions upon millions of people....it's like a vicious cycle that humans can't get past their wrong ideas about themselves....it creates almost an energy field of negative energy....

....not to sound metaphysical but look at certain countries where there has been poverty for centuries....a child is born into what his/her parents are born into...all they see and know is poverty....it would be so hard to break out of that....very few do....this whole thing changes when enough people can break free from the cycle of poverty---not just in a material sense but a spiritual sense....

Great question.

Answer 7

Maybe we have it backwards. Perhaps the cause of poverty is ambition and want of stuff. If we lived in a society where we did not WANT anything, I think things would be a lot different. We would work to stay alive, to stay clothed and fed and to keep others clothed and fed. Instead we work for money to buy not only needs but wants.

The value of a certain profession that we, as a society, have placed on it, affects the monetary amount that the person gets for performing or providing that profession. The medical profession is probably the most obvious one because we place a high value on health and staying alive. (Except that 300 years ago, you didn't have nurses working their butts off and getting paid far, far less than doctors who had more education and make the big decisions). Less obvious is the fact that we will pay people millions of dollars to entertain us while we pay others minimum wage to feed us and keep the tables we eat off of clean.

Why is there poverty? Because there is money. With money comes the need to place a value on every product and service that exists. What we value is pretty screwed up if you ask me. We can choose to pay 20 bucks for a pair of jeans that were sewn in sweat shops, or 300 bucks for a pair of jeans that have someone's name or logo stitched on them. Really, when you think of it, both of those options help to create and seal poverty. In one case, we buy the cheap jeans, and the jean label sees that it can make a profit so he keeps hiring people at substandard conditions because he can. The people take the jobs because there is nothing else they can do. In the latter case, the jean label sees that it can make a profit off of its "creativity" and also continues to mark up the prices because he can. In turn, middle class jane sees these jeans on the butt of some celebrity and feels that she needs to have these jeans too. She buys them with her credit card, increasing the debt that is already there. Her friends follow suit because they have to "keep up with the Joneses"

Seems like we really have our priorities screwed up. Sorry if I rambled.

Answer 8

I think poverty is from a lack of education, and from a lack of hiring companies not understanding that just because you don't have an education in a certain field doesn't mean you can't be taught it. (like on the job), because education cost so much money, which people in lower levels of income cannot afford. And then the government taking so many taxes on the lower and middle classes, plus the standard wage for americans need to be raised for inflation of housing and gas, and electricity, which makes the people who are making the money and passing it out to blame. Because they take advantage of the poverty stricken and get richer, by raising prices, and people in poverty have little way of getting out from underneath the rat race.

Answer 9

Poverty can be caused by many different problems. One cause of poverty is that people who have a lower than average ability to earn income are more likely to be poor than those people who are high achievers in the workplace. The group most affected by this cause is generally the elderly, the disabled, the feeble-minded, single mothers, and many minority figures.

Answer 10

poverty is not just an economic term..what it implies is being poor, being at the receiving end of every kind of religious, legal, social inequality and getting the worst of everything, be it the consequences of environmental degradation, exploitation for money, diseases, or lack of education...AND being blamed for whatever is wrong with society.. poverty affects not only the body, but it kills the human spirit, and affects the mind, it becomes a way of thinking...and it's HARD to get out of that

what causes poverty is not dearth of resources but unequal and imbalanced distribution....deliberate manipulation to keep a section of society deprived of the basic human rights. industrialization, capitalism, organised religions and vote bank politics are of course big contributing factors...they thrive on exploitation of the poor, and do their best to keep them as they are..illiterate, poor and ready to believe and do whatever they are told...

Answer 11

Unfortunately to be honest it is political. Taxes and insurance is overwhelming to society, no matter is you make a decent amount or work to jobs, the government does not do what we do to have a decent life, they do not know what it is like to be an individual they are judicial smarts and pad their own paychecks, they do not have street smarts and it takes both to survive. I have seen people of proper give up their lives because they owe taxes or lost their house because of taxes at the age 25-90 years, and sad to say it drives them to drink and or a old folks home where they get beaten, my dad hung himself, because he could no longer work when he had cancer and said I am so sorry I can not provide for your mother and you children I looked every where, but I owed for taxes and rent, vehcile insurance, health insurance, I never use, I give up bye loves. And he meant it, while the insurance, government, and taxes own us the criminals own them. Anyway I took him out of the tree and sad to say I can see what he meant. They eat ... I don't. Politics... Insurance co...