Poverty

===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" />