Causes of Poverty | List of Main Reasons Discussed

Poverty is a state of lack of sufficient resources for living and well-being. The main reasons for it include

1. Lack of education
2. Deficiency of natural resources
3. Physical disability
4. Inadequate family support
5. Gender discrimination
6. Ill health
7. Rampant Corruption
8. Scarce Foreign aid
9. Internal riots and protests
10. International sanctions
11. Invasions
12. Personal Choice or preferences

People in many countries and people living there are in extreme poverty.

Poverty is a condition of the economy which does not provide sufficient means for living.

The only way to overcome poverty is to make optfor monetary transactions.

But till the last few decades, the transaction means were limited to food, clothing, jewelry and a few other materials.

Now, ways for financial transactions are many due to the advent of the internet and technology.

Anyone with proper education and knowledge can overcome poverty through hard work and stay away from the poverty world.

10 Causes of poverty.

Lack of education

• Lack of education is one of the root causes of poverty.
• Education has enabled many people to overcome poverty. Education provides an ability to make money in multiple ways. An educated person can survive in any place in the world.
• Hence you can see almost all the nations in the world spend a lot on education.
• They even provide scholarships to those from economically backward families.
• Because of education, there is a tremendous growth of scientific knowledge.
• Due to this, there is a production of automobiles, electronic gadgets, which make enormous profits for the manufacturers leading to growth in job opportunities.
• So, education helps overcome poverty, and those countries with a lack of scientific education among their population are under extreme poverty.

Deficiency of resources

• People or nations with some natural resources could eliminate poverty.
• Middle East countries which are previously desert and developing countries are now some of the wealthiest nations.
• This is due to the availability of petroleum resources which generate huge income from exports.
• These countries are also worried about the decline of oil reserves and the emergence of alternatives for automobiles like electric and hydrogen technology.
• So, these countries can witness poverty again and hence; they are trying to adopt scientific education for the future.

• Other types of natural resources include iron and other ores like in Australia, which helps the nations generate sufficient revenues.
• But when the human population grows, these resources can decline fast and lead to poverty. So poverty is one of the important overpopulation problems.

Physical disability

• Some people get disabled due to accidents and others from birth.
• For those disabled, it is very tough to perform regular tasks.
• They cannot perform well on the job or even make a better businessperson.
• So those with a physical disability would be unable to generate income and may remain poor.
• Also, being disabled makes them feel inferior to others, and hence, they cannot take steps to create more wealth with confidence.

Inadequate family support

• Many people are rich due to the wealth obtained from their family members.
• A person without a proper family rarely lives a prosperous life.
• Adequate family support helps one take up education and also the right decisions in business or investments.
• If not family, one needs good friends and well-wishers to live a better and prosperous life.

Gender discrimination

• In many societies, females are discouraged from working, studying and are also offered unequal pay compared to males.
• This discrimination prevents the use of valuable human capital as half of it would be women.
• Societies with less gender discrimination would have better financial status.

Ill health

• If one develops ill health, then it would not be easy to perform their jobs.
• Even they cannot plan or have goals in life as it will be impossible to execute.
• Thus they would not be able to achieve their fullest potential and success.
  So one needs to take care of health to live better and perform well.
• This good health can be regarding both and physical and mental health.
• At least having physical illness would not potentially hamper a person’s financial progress.
• But having mental disorders like depression, anxiety would hinder him drastically and may even run him into financial losses.

So better psychological and physical health contributes to wealth.

Also, Read the Effects of poverty.

Rampant Corruption

Corruption is a means by which people in positions would steal the funds meant for the public’s welfare. Many developing and underdeveloped countries suffer from this corruption. The people in power would divert the funds for personal purposes by corrupt means instead of spending on education, infrastructure, health facilities needed for the country population. Hence, you would notice countries with the least corruption are well developed and vice versa.

Scarce Foreign aid

Lack of foreign aid or misuse of it is the cause of poverty. Few countries do not receive foreign assistance due to international sanctions. In other countries, this fund is misused by rulers instead of investing in education and other social welfare schemes.

Internal riots and protests

• There are countries where a lack of proper law and order contributes to poverty.
• This is because there cannot be a proper environment for business or work in places of no law and order.
• Many countries in the middle east suffer from poverty due to communal violence, terrorism, etc.
• For this, governments need to take firm steps to curb the violence. Or else the common person cannot work to generate income.

International sanctions

• Many nations were affected by international sanctions due to the acts of their governments.
• Countries like North Korea, Iraq, Russia suffered from international sanctions or economically advanced countries like the United States, European Union, Japan, etc.
• When these sanctions are levied, these countries are exempt from the benefits of foreign investments and imports.
• Then the people in those countries had to suffer from hunger and economic problems.
  

Invasions

• Countries like England, France, etc., which invaded other nations, looted them.
• For these nations, after getting freedom, it is tough to recover from poverty.
• Thus many countries that were economically well off or had many natural resources before had to suffer.
• Similarly, few countries were exploited for ivory, diamonds, and other minerals by other nations.
• This invading and loot always left the people of host countries in poverty.
• Even countries like the united states of America had to work hard after being freed from colonial rule for economic empowerment.

Personal Choice or preferences

• This is at the level of the commoner besides the above causes.
• Lack of foresightedness, proper friends, etc., people remain poor.
• Also, some of them intentionally adapt to being poor to avoid distraction from their spiritual path.
• They do not believe in the idea that they could be happier by having more money.
• They instead feel that possessing cash and other valuables will hinder spiritual growth.
• It is even quite true that having wealth always drives away peace of mind. Some religions also prescribe abandonment of wealth as a means to attain spiritual progress.

Check differences between spirituality and religion for more ideas.

• Hence we can see many monks who have nothing but simple clothes to live in. They stay away from all the worldly pleasures which require money.

In doing so, they tend to have more peace of mind and focus on their spiritual journey.

Lack of planning

This is also one of the prominent causes of poverty. Lack of financial plans for the future or old age also leads to poverty. Many old-age people suffer from poverty due to a lack of regular income or savings at that period. Apart from physical weakness, poverty hurts them a lot. They cannot acquire nutritious food, medicine and also support to ease the stress of old age. So we can notice many old age people trying to get some monetary help. Nowadays, it is quite easy to avoid such situations by opting for old-age pension plans, making sufficient savings, etc.