if money is man-made,then why is there poverty?

Answer 1

Because mone is a "medium of exchange"--meaning it represents valuue, but it doesn't have any value itself.

Here's how it works:

Different people make/produce different products (like bread, lumber, clothing). Now, for people to excange gods and services, they have to decide how much each item is worth in relation to the others. Example: how much bread for a pair of pants?

If you think about it, this kind of trading (called "barter") gets very awkward as son as you get beyond very simple exchanges. Early in human civilaxzation, people started to use some particular item (gold is the most common) as a common standard--and just measured the value of every thing else in terms of that one item--and so "money" was invented.

Gold (also silver,copper, and a variety of other things) have been used as money. Such items are good choices because they are rare--and difficult to fake. That keeps the "money supply" fairly constant, so it works as a stable medium for exchange. Now, we don't use gold--we use paper money--with the bills specially made so they are difficult to counterfeit.

But--back to your question--all money is is a "medium of exchange"--the real value is in the products and services we produce. You can print all the money you want--give everybody a billion dollars. But there wont be any more food, or clothing, or anything else--so just printing more money doesn't accomplish anything. To eliminat poverty, we have to increase the amount of goods and services available--and make sure that more people have an opportunity to share in the added goods and services.

Answer 2

Poverty has little to do with the amount of money one has. It is a matter of living conditions and standards. Poverty in the purely economic sense is a creation of the Marxian, and some would say, Hegelian, view of society. Notwithstanding, money cannot be printed at will. In order for money to have value it must be backed by collateral. At one time that collateral was gold but today it includes the value of a nation’s GDP or GNP. If the nation printed money based solely on want it would quickly lose its value as a result of the simple matter of supply and demand. As currency volume rises so do prices. However everyone does not benefit from the increase in currency volume yet they still suffer the effects of high prices. Hence the rich would get richer and the poor, poorer. For their ability to purchase even the basic necessities becomes strained. Note however that even if everyone received the same increase in currency commensurate with prices, the poor would still be in no better a position. This is part of the fallacy of composition.

This is why the Reserve Bank manages the rate of interest. Interest rates serve to control currency volume. Otherwise you get runaway inflation.

Answer 3

Currency represents the productive yield of labor, capital, infrastructure, and labor methods/organization.

If in a year, a nation does not increase productivity but it increases the money supply, the value of the money decreases because the quantity of available goods and services is unchanged.

coragryph:
Post-Scarcity in that context is the craziest thing I've ever heard of. Sorry. Maybe in 1,000 years when we've cleaned up the environment and learned to get nutrition directly from the sun. I guess you're saying someday.. but I think the model ignores human nature and assumes anyone would be content with what their supposedely egalitarian overlords have provided them with.

You strike me as the type of person who would rebel if you were born into a society where everyone was forced to be equal.

Answer 4

Poverty isn't caused by lack of money...it is caused by lack of education.

You can give money to poverty-stricken people and improve their life for the short-term. When the money is gone, they are no better off than they were to begin with.

The cure to poverty is education. Without the ability to read or write, without skills and knowledge, one will always live in poverty or near it.

Answer 5

Because money only represents available resources and credit limits -- it's just a symbol.

The real reason is that we live in a scarcity-based economy, where there is a presumption of finite resources leading to a strangle-hold based on supply and demand. Because (so the theory goes) there are finite resources, we need to charge for those resources, which means payment (money or barter).

In reality, as technology improves, we have the ability to grow beyond and enter into a post-scarcity model, where basic necessities of life (food, clothing, shelter, power, information) could be free. But that type of economic does not put profits in the pockets of those who hold the current economic strangle-holds, so there are many who oppose eliminating poverty becasue it also mean eliminating the rich ruling caste.

Answer 6

It doesn't matter how much money is made.......That is not going to end poverty. If we made a bunch of money and handed it out to everyone it would just increase inflation..........
If I gave you a hundred bucks but raised the price of everything that you needed to buy to live to two hundred bucks you would still be poor!! and still could not buy food or whatever...........Get it?

Answer 7

Money is just a token used when exchanging goods and services.

There is poverty because there must be a good or service to be exchanged.

Answer 8

Because the value of money is based on what people are willing to trade for it. If the print huge amounts of money, then goods and services would simply be more expensive.

Answer 9

because man also puts a value on money. In 1920's Germany people had to use wheel-barrows full of money to go shopping but nobody considered themselves rich.

Answer 10

Because labor is taxed! Can you beat that? Next the air is going to cost! 1913 was the beginning of true elitism in America!