What causes people to live in poverty?
I have a one word answer, but it is something which will inflame others views: Capitalism. I totally agree! It is the GREED of those that take more than they need; and are aided and abetted by the errors, of Capitalistic Democratic Government! A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE: The simple answer to the question; “What causes people to live in poverty?”, is quite simply a lack of equity. The absence of wealth is what creates poverty, and those people who live without wealth must necessarily obtain wealth in order to rise up out of poverty. The real question is not why people live in poverty but how do those people flourish and prosper? Can every one on the planet flourish and prosper simultaneously or does the presence of wealth in one person necessarily require the absence of wealth in another? Must some suffer so that others can flourish and prosper? Are there enough resources within the universe to sustain the notion that everybody flourish and prosper? Who amongst will dare say that no, it is not possible for all of us to flourish and prosper? Who amongst dare say there is not enough within the universe to sustain our prosperity? Who amongst us dare suggest that we are not at all capable of being so much more than we’ve ever been before? Those who would dare would be audacious indeed. The complexity of poverty is no less compelling than the simplicity of wealth. One, however, helps to ensure our survival the other helps to ensure our demise. It should be clear to those who wish to survive that wealth is a vital component towards creating our survival. We need shelter from the storms, we need sustenance to weather the storms, and we need certain tools to rebuild and keep expanding after the storm. With out these essential tools and items we are more apt to fail in life and expedite our own demise. We, as individuals have a natural born right to flourish and prosper and we should do so vigorously. How? Ah, but there’s the rub…How do we flourish and prosper? How do we obtain wealth? Must we obtain that wealth at the expense of others, or is it possible to obtain wealth while facilitating the wealth of others? The theory of capitalism suggests that yes we can all flourish and prosper, albeit, clumsily and painfully so. Capitalism is based on the notion that massive competition within a free and unregulated market that uses a stable currency will facilitate the greater good, which is the greatest good to the greatest amount. The theory of communism, on the other hand, rejects that idea, dismissing it as naive, claiming that all markets must be regulated and competition diminished so that the greatest good to the greatest amount can be facilitated. A centralized economy versus a free and unregulated economy is the matter of debate, but for the economy, there is no debate. Economies will do whatever the people want them to do. The basic principles of supply and demand dictate to a large degree the cost and ultimate price of goods and services and no amount of regulation, no kind of reduction of competition or gambling with the currency will change that. But, these are just economic theories and in the end do little to address the question, why do people live in poverty? Wealth, whether it be gold, diamonds or stacks of one hundred dollar bills is nothing more than symbolic. Wealth is the accumulation of your own effort. This is not to say that poor people don’t make enough effort. Indeed, because of the abject poverty in which they endeavor to survive, they are forced to work harder for less which only worsens the downward spiral of demise. What poor people lack that wealthy people possess is multiple sources of income. The noble poor man will work by the fruit of his own labor and that labor is hard pressed to produce what little wealth he might have while the wealthy enjoy the fruits of other peoples labor and acquire wealth while they soundly sleep. Yet, because they do so, it makes them no less noble than the poor who toil so hard. When the poor come to realize that they toil because they choose to, then one by one, individual by individual will they endeavor to change that. Some will succeed and some will fail, of those who fail, some will try again and keep trying until they succeed and those who accept their failure as their fate will continue to live in poverty. Of those who succeed and accumulate wealth, some will be happy and some will not. Of those who remain in poverty some will be happy and some will not. Wealthy or poor, very few can flourish and prosper if they are not happy. Happiness, in the end, is the finest wealth known to people, and if toiling all day for little pay makes someone happy, then is that poverty? If building business and creating wealth in terms of currency makes some one happy is that evil exploitation? In the end, some people choose poverty because that is what they choose, some choose poverty because they don’t know how to make a better choice and some choose poverty because they keep making very stupid choices but as much as most would argue, a life of poverty is a choice and no government, no group, no person can stop another from accumulating wealth if that’s what the person has chosen to do. Everybody makes their choices and spends a lifetime living with those choices. If people do not want to live in poverty then they must necessarily choose to rise up out of it, then get to the hard work of making that choice a reality..
Ecleasties 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.