Causes of poverty

Poverty is the condition of the majority of people and nations of the world. Why this happens? It is
enough to blame poor people for the fact that they got on this bad situation? Were they lazy, took they wrong
decisions, and making thus themselves responsible for their fate (condition)? But what about their
Government? Did they have some policies that actually undermines the effective development?
There is no doubt that such causes of poverty and inequality are real. But the deeper causes of poverty,
as those seen on a worldwide scale, are often less discussed. Behind this growing interconnections predicted
by globalisation, stands global decisions, policies and practices. These are usually influenced, carried out, or
formulated by the rich and powerful people. They may be leaders of some rich countries or other worldwide
individuals, for example multinational corporations, institutions and influential people.
In this situation, the governments of poor nations, along with their peoples, are often powerless. As a
result, if you look the global context, only a small number of people get rich, while most are struggling with
poverty.
Most people live on just a few dollars a day. Whether you live in the richest nations of the world, or in
the poorest, you will notice anyway high levels of social inequality. Moreover, the poorest will have lower
access to health services, education and other services. So issues like hunger, malnutrition and disease affects
the poorest society representatives. Also, the poorest individuals are often marginalized within society having
low possibilities of expression or participate in political debates, that reduces the chances of getting rid of
poverty. By contrast, the richer you are, the more you have chances to benefit from economic or political
policies. Most often, the discrepancy between the amounts of money spent globally for its military operations
to rescue financial institutions, or other areas that the rich can benefit them, and the amounts spent on the
approach of the current crisis daily poverty and problems related to it is downright astounding.
Poverty has always been present in the world, in both rich countries and poor ones. At present, in most
nations, inequality-the gap between rich and poor is quite great and often is also increasing. The causes are
numerous, including a lack of individual accountability, deficit governmental policy, exploitation by some
individuals and businesses with power and influence, or a combination of these and other factors.
Many people believe that high levels of inequality will affect social cohesion and will lead to
problems, such as increasing the rate of crime and violence. Gender inequality is often a measure of relative
poverty. However, absolute poverty, is also a cause for concern.
World Bank Data on the poverty in the world, reveals that the number of people living in poverty is
higher than they had thought previously. For example, the new poverty threshold is defined as the state of
things when you live with the equivalent of $1.25 per day. Considering that this calculation is based on the
most recent data available (2005), we note that 1.4 billion people living on the edge of this threshold or even
below it. In addition, almost half the world's population-more than three billion people, live on less than
$2.50 a day and at least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 per day.