The Five Causes of Poverty

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Poverty is a perpetuated system of lack which results in one not living according to a commonly acceptable standard. The definition of poverty today is the same as yesterday however the look of poverty today is not the same. In a largely agronomic society the look of poverty is a family that has no land or has land but has no equipment to farm adequate produce for attaining money to trade for proper education or any other requirements. In the modern urban times the look of poverty is a community that has no access to clean water, no access to electricity and has no access to regular income to meet the expected bread basket. Every generation creates a standard of what “wealthy” looks like and what state of living is poverty. The causes of poverty however never really change they remain the same. It is uncanny that that even the Bible quotes Jesus who declares that the “The Poor will always be with us” which adds more intrigue to the subject of what are the causes of poverty.

1. Economic Model

Poverty is a system in which the inputs are not adequate to meet the expected outcome. Hence one needs food worth 10 dollars but their income is only adequate to purchase food worth 3 dollars. The problem is not the expectation but the problem is the system of income that is not in tandem with the needs. It is well known fact that the earth has more than enough resources to meet everyone’s needs. There is enough gold, enough land and enough water for every human being alive. We as humans have more than enough capacity and capital at a global level to be able to meet everyone’s needs however the economic model does not allow for that. Our economic model creates a funnel in which resources are distributed according to a value system of labor and capital possession. In other words if you do not own the capital in the economic model you cannot access the resources. Capital comes in different forms which one can own, but largely capital is an idea that is matured to be a solution. However when the capital matures into systems, the system is self-protective such that not everyone can access its base.

2. Programmed Education

Poverty is an idea which in time has become the base of thought which creates a state of being. In large parts an environment can be so structured that the idea of wealth is nothing more than a dream for someone else. Poverty can be programmed to a mental state where the patterns of thought are structured to identify with lack. Hence some people believe they were born to be poor whilst others have self fulfilling prophecies that poverty is part of who they are and where they come from. Hence the speed of attaining income which is above the poverty line is self regulated never to go beyond a certain speed limit. People self-regulate themselves into a perpetuated state of poverty as opportunities are missed and ignored. An “it’s not for me culture” is fostered and subconsciously accepted as being the “accepted norm.” Poverty thus becomes a programmed education of identity which is personalized and characterized as the mirror image of  one’s identity. The way a person then defines themselves becomes synonymous with the characteristics of poverty.

3. Fear

Poverty can be caused by fear which creates an artificial mental wall which if one is to try and break it the consequences of the risk taken are multiplied to challenge one’s comfort and at the most one’s survival. Wealth is the ability to turn an investment into a channel of return. In order to eat a fruit one must plant, tend to the plant and then eat the fruit. However there is always a risk of the plant dying or not maturing, of which there lies the fear.  You cannot discover unless if you explore, money is not made by sitting but by sweat. Change is normally an unwanted activity which becomes a dread. Fear can quickly become a culture and a tradition which is a deterrent to gaining wealth.

4. War, Colonization and Exchange Rates

Poverty also has its roots in the past and the present. Colonization created an unequal system of access and capitalization of different geographic areas. Hence some regions received cheap slavery labor which capitalized their societies to levels where industry could boom. With the advent of wars over the years the victors created economic zones which gave advantage to their societies and limited ideas to only their communities. In  the colonial times an idea from the colonized would not be attributed to that person and neither would the benefits be distributed evenly to that inventor. Overtime the distribution of of wealth has filtered into system where by the strength of a nation is equated to the strength of the system hence exchange rates determined your value as a nation. Poverty is therefore a system of strength and weaknesses. How much you possess will be a factor of how strong you are.

5. Religion and Culture

Where people are taken advantage of to lock their ability to produce wealth or change, religion and culture become the gatekeepers to wealth. People or communities become locked up in mental states in which they are hypnotized to consistent habits which do no encourage change or modernization. Incidences of people shunning technology and attributing it to demons and the devil are rampant. The refusal of the fact that the earth spins around the earth is one such idea which was a stumbling block to the idea of using technology to discover new things. Making reading accessible to everyone was taboo at some point just as an example. Who we are as people has long been defined by religious and cultural beliefs. Our cultures have been rampant with ideas designed to stop progress or create fear hence poverty has continued. It is of not that those who were labeled as being proponents of heresies became the founders of technology that has driven  civilization onward.

 

 

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