Poverty

== Perspectives ==
===Economic theories===
{{See also|Causes of poverty}}
[[File:20220801 Economic stratification - cross-class friendships - bar chart.svg|thumb|upright=1.5| Data shows substantial social segregation correlating with economic income groups.<ref name=EconomicStratification/> However, social connectedness to people of higher income levels is a strong predictor of upward income mobility.<ref name=EconomicStratification>Data from {{cite journal |last1=Chetty |first1=Raj |last2=Jackson |first2=Matthew O. |last3=Kuchler |first3=Theresa |last4=Stroebel |first4=Johannes |last5=Hendren |first5=Nathaniel |last6=Fluegge |first6=Robert B. |last7=Gong |first7=Sara |last8=Gonzalez |first8=Frederico |last9=Grondin |first9=Armelle |last10=Jacob |first10=Matthew |display-authors=4 |title=Social capital I: measurement and associations with economic mobility |journal=Nature |date=August 1, 2022 |volume=608 |issue=7921 |pages=108–121 |doi=10.1038/s41586-022-04996-4 |pmid=35915342 |pmc=9352590 |bibcode=2022Natur.608..108C }} Charted in {{cite news |last1=Leonhardt |first1=David |title='Friending Bias' / A large new study offers clues about how lower-income children can rise up the economic ladder. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/01/briefing/economic-ladder-rich-poor-americans.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220801104004/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/01/briefing/economic-ladder-rich-poor-americans.html |archive-date=August 1, 2022 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
The cause of poverty is a highly ideologically charged subject, as different causes point to different remedies. Very broadly speaking, the [[socialism|socialist]] tradition locates the roots of poverty in problems of distribution and the use of the [[means of production]] as capital benefiting individuals, and calls for [[redistribution of wealth]] as the solution, whereas the [[neoliberal]] school of thought holds that creating conditions for profitable private investment is the solution. Neoliberal [[think tank]]s have received extensive funding,<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://harpers.org/archive/2004/09/tentacles-of-rage/|title=Tentacles of rage|first=Lewis|last=Lapham|date=October 2004|journal=Harper's Magazine|volume=September 2004|access-date=28 September 2019|archive-date=19 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019043338/https://harpers.org/archive/2004/09/tentacles-of-rage/|url-status=live}}</ref> and the ability to apply many of their ideas in highly indebted countries in the [[global South]] as a condition for receiving emergency loans from the [[International Monetary Fund]].

The existence of inequality is in part due to a set of self-reinforcing behaviors that all together constitute one aspect of the [[cycle of poverty]]. These behaviors, in addition to unfavorable, external circumstances, also explain the existence of the [[Matthew effect]], which not only exacerbates existing inequality, but is more likely to make it multigenerational. Widespread, multigenerational poverty is an important contributor to civil unrest and political instability.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eda.admin.ch/deza/en/home/themes-sdc/fragile-contexts-and-prevention/fragile-states.html|title=Fragile states – poverty, instability and violence|website=www.eda.admin.ch|language=en|access-date=15 June 2018|archive-date=15 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615110941/https://www.eda.admin.ch/deza/en/home/themes-sdc/fragile-contexts-and-prevention/fragile-states.html|url-status=live}}</ref> For example, [[Raghuram Rajan|Raghuram G. Rajan]], former governor of the [[Reserve Bank of India]] and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, has blamed the ever-widening gulf between the rich and the poor, especially [[income inequality in the United States|in the US]], to be one of the main fault lines which caused the financial institutions to pump money into [[subprime mortgages]]—on political behest, as a palliative and not a remedy, for poverty—causing the [[Subprime mortgage crisis|financial crisis of 2007–2009]]. In Rajan's view the main cause of the increasing gap between high income and low income earners was lack of equal access to higher education for the latter.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/Fault-Lines-Fractures-Threaten-Paperback/dp/B00OX8KPE6/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466701032&sr=1-12&keywords=fault+lines+how+hidden+fractures+still+threaten+the+world+economy|title=Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy by Raghuram G. Rajan (2012) Paperback|date=1 January 2012|publisher=HarperCollins India|access-date=24 June 2016|archive-date=26 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126113725/https://www.amazon.com/Fault-Lines-Fractures-Threaten-Paperback/dp/B00OX8KPE6/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466701032&sr=1-12&keywords=fault+lines+how+hidden+fractures+still+threaten+the+world+economy|url-status=live}}</ref>

A [[Empirical evidence|data based]] scientific [[empirical research]], which studied the impact of [[Political family|dynastic politics]] on the level of poverty of the provinces, found a [[Correlation and dependence|positive correlation]] between dynastic politics and poverty; i.e. the higher proportion of dynastic politicians in power in a province leads to higher poverty rate.<ref>{{cite journal|title = Inequality in democracy: Insights from an empirical analysis of political dynasties in the 15th Philippine Congress|journal = Philippine Political Science Journal|date = 1 December 2012|issn = 0115-4451|pages = 132–145|volume = 33|issue = 2|doi = 10.1080/01154451.2012.734094|first1 = Ronald U.|last1 = Mendoza|first2 = Edsel L. Jr.|last2 = Beja|first3 = Victor S.|last3 = Venida|first4 = David B.|last4 = Yap|s2cid = 154856834|url = https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/40104/1/MPRA_paper_40104.pdf|access-date = 22 September 2019|archive-date = 1 August 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200801200741/https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/40104/1/MPRA_paper_40104.pdf|url-status = live}}</ref> There is significant evidence that these political dynasties use their political dominance over their respective regions to enrich themselves, using methods such as graft or outright bribery of legislators.<ref name=enough8>{{Cite web|title = What is wrong with political dynasties?|url = http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/276345/opinion/what-is-wrong-with-political-dynasties|website = GMA News Online| date=October 2012 |access-date = 8 November 2015|archive-date = 26 November 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151126001056/http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/276345/opinion/what-is-wrong-with-political-dynasties|url-status = live}}</ref>

Most economic historians believe that throughout most of human history, extreme poverty was the norm for roughly 90% of the population, and only with the emergence of [[industrialization]] in the 19th century were the masses of people lifted out of it.<ref name=SullivanHickel2023>{{cite journal |last1=Sullivan |first1=Dylan |last2=Hickel|first2=Jason |date=2023 |title=Capitalism and extreme poverty: A global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century|url= |journal=[[World Development (journal)|World Development]]|volume=161 |issue= |page=106026 |doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106026|s2cid=252315733 |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{ r | Vox_2019-02-12 | p=1 | q=But in some ways, Hickel's response reflects the crux of the dispute between him and Roser. Roser — like most economic historians — does not view poverty as created but as the original state of humankind from its inception until the Industrial Revolution. }} This narrative is advanced by, among others, [[Martin Ravallion]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Ravallion|first=Martin|date=2016 |title=The Economics of Poverty: History, Measurement, and Policy|url= |location= |publisher=Oxford University Press|page= |isbn=978-0-19-021277-3}}</ref> [[Nicholas Kristof]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Kristof|first=Nicholas|date=December 28, 2019 |title=This Has Been the Best Year Ever|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/opinion/sunday/2019-best-year-poverty.html|work=The New York Times |location= |access-date=December 13, 2022}}</ref> and [[Steven Pinker]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Pinker|first=Steven|date=2018 |title=Enlightenment now: The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress|url= |location= |publisher=Viking|page= |isbn=978-0-525-42757-5}}</ref>

Some academics, including Dylan Sullivan and [[Jason Hickel]] have challenged this contemporary mainstream narrative on poverty, arguing that extreme poverty was not the norm throughout human history, but emerged during "periods of severe social and economic dislocation", including high European feudalism and the apex of the Roman Empire, and that it expanded significantly after 1500 with the emergence of colonialism and the beginnings of capitalism, stating that "the expansion of the capitalist world-system caused a dramatic and prolonged process of impoverishment on a scale unparalleled in recorded history." Sullivan and Hickel assert that only with the rise of [[anti-colonial]] and socialist political movements in the 20th century did human welfare begin to see significant improvement.<ref name="SullivanHickel2023" /> However, all scholars and intellectuals, including Hickel, agree that the incomes of the poorest people in the world have increased since 1981.<ref name="Vox_2019-02-12">{{Cite web |last=Matthews |first=Dylan |date=2019-02-12 |title=Bill Gates tweeted out a chart and sparked a huge debate about global poverty |url=https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/2/12/18215534/bill-gates-global-poverty-chart |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=Vox |language=en}}</ref> Nevertheless, Sullivan and Hickel argue that poverty persists under contemporary global capitalism (in spite of it being highly productive) because masses of working people are cut off from common land and resources, have no ownership or control over the [[means of production]], and have their labor power "appropriated by a ruling class or an external imperial power," thereby maintaining extreme inequality.<ref name="SullivanHickel2023" />

Marian L. Tupy, a senior fellow of the [[Cato Institute]], a [[right-libertarian]] think tank, criticized Hickel's claim that people before industrialization lived well without a lot of monetary income, stating that "The evidence from contemporary accounts and academic research" shows that "Compared to today, Western European living standards prior to industrialization were miserably low.", that "poverty was widespread and it was precisely the onset of industrialization and global trade … which led to poverty alleviation first in the West and then in the Rest."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2019-02-14 |title=The Romantic Idea of a Plentiful Past Is Pure Fantasy |url=https://www.humanprogress.org/the-romantic-idea-of-a-plentiful-past-is-pure-fantasy/ |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=HumanProgress |language=en-US}}</ref> and that both [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]], while advocating for socialism, recognized that the capitalist system developing around them had improved people's material conditions.<ref name=":1" />

===Environmentalism===
{{Main|Environmentalism of the poor}}
{{See also|Climate change and poverty}}
[[File:Depuradora de Lluc.JPG|thumb|right|upright=1.15|A [[sewage treatment]] plant that uses [[solar energy]], located at [[Santuari de Lluc]] monastery, Majorca]]

Important studies such as the [[Our Common Future|Brundtland Report]] concluded that poverty causes [[environmental degradation]], while other theories like [[environmentalism of the poor]] conclude that the global poor may be the most important force for sustainability.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martínez Alier |first=Juan |title=The environmentalism of the poor: a study of ecological conflicts and valuation |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-567328-9 |location=New Delhi |oclc=61669200}}</ref> Either way, the poor suffer most from environmental degradation caused by reckless [[exploitation of natural resources]] by the rich.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Anantha Duraiappah (1996). ''Poverty and Environmental Degradation: a Literature Review and Analysis'' CREED Working Paper Series No 8 International Institute for Environment and Development, London. Retrieved on June 27, 2016 |url=http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/8127IIED.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113164806/http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/8127IIED.pdf |archive-date=13 January 2016 |access-date=27 June 2016}}</ref> This unfair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits has generated the global [[environmental justice]] movement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Martinez-Alier |first1=Joan |last2=Temper |first2=Leah |last3=Del Bene |first3=Daniela |last4=Scheidel |first4=Arnim |date=2016-05-03 |title=Is there a global environmental justice movement? |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2016.1141198 |journal=The Journal of Peasant Studies |language=en |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=731–755 |doi=10.1080/03066150.2016.1141198 |s2cid=156535916 |issn=0306-6150}}</ref>

A report published in 2013 by the [[World Bank]], with support from the [[Climate & Development Knowledge Network]], found that climate change was likely to hinder future attempts to reduce poverty. The report presented the likely impacts of present day, 2&nbsp;°C and 4&nbsp;°C warming on agricultural production, water resources, coastal ecosystems and cities across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. The impacts of a temperature rise of 2&nbsp;°C included: regular food shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa; shifting rain patterns in South Asia leaving some parts under water and others without enough water for power generation, irrigation or drinking; degradation and loss of reefs in South East Asia, resulting in reduced fish stocks; and coastal communities and cities more vulnerable to increasingly violent storms.<ref>[http://cdkn.org/2013/06/report-warmer-world-will-keep-millions-of-people-trapped-in-poverty/?loclang=en_gb REPORT: Warmer world will keep millions of people trapped in poverty.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029194528/http://cdkn.org/2013/06/report-warmer-world-will-keep-millions-of-people-trapped-in-poverty/?loclang=en_gb |date=29 October 2013 }} [[Climate & Development Knowledge Network]]. Retrieved 31 July 2013.</ref> In 2016, a UN report claimed that by 2030, an additional 122 million more people could be driven to extreme poverty because of climate change.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/oct/17/climate-change-could-drive-122m-more-people-into-extreme-poverty-by-2030-un-united-nations-report|title=Climate change could drive 122m more people into extreme poverty by 2030|work=The Guardian|access-date=18 October 2016|date=17 October 2016|archive-date=18 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018003039/https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/oct/17/climate-change-could-drive-122m-more-people-into-extreme-poverty-by-2030-un-united-nations-report|url-status=live}}</ref>

Global warming can also lead to a deficiency in water availability; with higher temperatures and CO<sub>2</sub> levels, plants consume more water leaving less for people. By consequence, water in rivers and streams will decline in the mid-altitude regions like Central Asia, Europe and North America. And if CO<sub>2</sub> levels continue to rise, or even remain the same, droughts will be happening much faster and will be lasting longer. According to a 2016 study led by Professor of Water Management, Arjen Hoekstra, four billion people are affected by [[water scarcity]] at least one month per year.<ref>{{Cite web|date=4 November 2019|title=Thirsty future ahead as climate change explodes plant growth|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/10/plants-consume-more-water-climate-change-thirsty-future/|access-date=30 November 2020|website=Science|language=en|archive-date=1 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101043113/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/10/plants-consume-more-water-climate-change-thirsty-future/}}</ref>

===Spirituality===
{{See also|Simple living|Evangelical counsels}}
[[File:Giotto - Legend of St Francis - -05- - Renunciation of Wordly Goods.jpg|thumb|St. [[Francis of Assisi]] renounces his worldly goods in a painting attributed to [[Giotto di Bondone]].]]

Among some individuals, poverty is considered a necessary or desirable condition, which must be embraced to reach certain spiritual, moral, or intellectual states. Poverty is often understood to be an essential element of [[nekkhamma|renunciation]] in religions such as [[Buddhism]], [[Hinduism]] (only for monks, not for lay persons) and [[Jainism]], whilst in [[Christian views on poverty and wealth|Christianity]], in particular Roman Catholicism, it is one of the [[evangelical counsels]].  The main aim of giving up things of the materialistic world is to withdraw oneself from sensual pleasures (as they are considered illusionary and only temporary in some religions—such as the concept of [[dunya]] in [[Islam]]). This self-invited poverty (or giving up pleasures) is different from the one caused by economic imbalance.

Some Christian communities, such as the [[The Simple Way|Simple Way]], the [[Bruderhof Communities|Bruderhof]], and the [[Amish]] value voluntary poverty;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.premierchristianity.com/Past-Issues/2019/August-2019/Meet-the-Bruderhof-Our-exclusive-peek-inside-a-modern-Christian-utopia|title=Meet the Bruderhof: Our exclusive peek inside a modern Christian utopia|last=Premier|date=18 July 2019|website=Premier Christianity|language=en-GB|access-date=26 October 2019|archive-date=27 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927121322/https://www.premierchristianity.com/Past-Issues/2019/August-2019/Meet-the-Bruderhof-Our-exclusive-peek-inside-a-modern-Christian-utopia}}</ref> some even take a vow of poverty, similar to that of the traditional Catholic orders, in order to live a more complete life of discipleship.<ref name="Oved 2017 ">{{cite book | last=Oved | first=Iaácov | title=The witness of the brothers: a history of the Bruderhof | publisher=Routledge | publication-place=London | year=2017 | isbn=978-1-351-47253-1 | oclc=994005958 }}</ref>

[[Benedict XVI]] distinguished "poverty ''chosen''" (the poverty of spirit proposed by Jesus), and "poverty ''to be fought''" (unjust and imposed poverty). He considered that the moderation implied in the former favors solidarity, and is a necessary condition so as to fight effectively to eradicate the abuse of the latter.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20090101_world-day-peace_en.html|title=World Peace Day Address 2009|publisher=The Vatican|date=1 January 2009|access-date=21 June 2011|archive-date=28 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628185005/http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20090101_world-day-peace_en.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

As it was indicated above the reduction of poverty results from [[religion]], but also can result from [[solidarity]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://wydawnictwoumk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/CJFA/article/view/CJFA.2014.001/3213 |title=S. Adamiak, D. Walczak, Catholic social teaching and social solidarity in the context of social security, Copernican Journal of Finance & Accounting, Vol 3, No 1, p. 17. |access-date=19 December 2014 |archive-date=16 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416181657/http://wydawnictwoumk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/CJFA/article/view/CJFA.2014.001/3213 |url-status=live }}</ref>