There is no solution to the problem of poverty. As long as humankind is poverty will remain.
Every sane person today considers poverty as a problem, and would like to contribute towards its solution. Some believe they can do so by being a part of economic development of the underprivileged. They would want to provide free education to the poor, so as to make them productive to earn. Some would want to provide food, clothing and financial help or support to the poor to reduce the extent of poverty. There are many ways seemingly good people are contributing today, thinking it would remove poverty one day. To give you my opinion on it, I pity their attempts. Be it economic development of the underprivileged or financial help and support to the poor, they are all lame approaches which can never remove poverty. I call them “lame approaches”, because they are not really solutions to the problem, but masks. By doing so, you can only mask the poverty, not solve it. For removing the problem one has to study the root cause of it and then attempt to curb it from there. So for a change, stop following the crowd and do some real analysis.
First of all we will determine what is called poverty. There are many definitions of poverty, but here we will take the most rational one. Poor are not those who live below poverty line as stated by the government. Poor are not those who have little or no money and few or no material possessions. Poor is one who can not have the basic necessities of life. Thus, my definition of poverty says –
Poverty is the state wherein one is unable to fulfill the basic necessities of life.
Now in today’s world of disparities the term “basic necessities” is subjective. For example, for the people living in the forest of Africa who have no importance and use of material possessions only adequate food is basic necessity of life, without which they would be considered poor, whereas, for me living in the developing country like India television, cell phone and washing machine are basic necessities of life, without which my life’s quality would be considered poor. If you are in the developed country as the US then even a car is a basic necessity. Thus, the definition remains the same, but in different worlds its implications are diverse.
After understanding what poverty is, now let’s move on to find out its root cause. Like many other of our problems poverty too is essentially human phenomenon. There is no poverty in animals. It shows that in nature’s care no one is poor, but every one is equal. Imagine the primitive stage of humankind where humans lived almost naturally. There is no poverty, no different classes, and no difference in standard of living. There is complete equality throughout. That is because when nature creates lives it places enough resources to support lives, and as long as every one is using one’s respective share of resources no one is left without resources and poverty can not arise.
What happened then which gave rise to poverty? When humans got intelligent they developed hunger for social power and desire to control. It gave rise to the tendency to possess more than others, to impact others’ lives and attain control thereby. Humans started collecting and possessing more resources than their natural requirement. This led to scarcity of resources as people started possessing others’ share of resources. When something is scarce it is valuable. Thus, scarcity resulted in value of resources; and when resources become valuable they no more remain just resources, they become wealth. For the first time thus, wealth came into existence. Those possessing wealth became rich, and those whose share was snatched became poor. Different classes were thus created and different standards of living came into existence.
This happened, because intelligent humans, by nature, can not live without the hunger for power and desire to control. Equal standard of living is not acceptable to human nature.
We learned the root cause of poverty. Now consider the present day situation. Unlike the early stage described above, today we have inserted the element called money as a connecting link between resources and the consumers of resources. Resources are no more directly available for consumption. First you have to earn money, and then you can get the resources in exchange of money. Without money there is no access to resources. So, instead of directly possessing resources today’s humans want to possess money. Wealth is changed in form. Money is wealth today.
The so-called economic development is aimed at providing income opportunities to every one. Assuming that one day the whole world will be economically developed, every one will be earning enough money to fulfill the basic necessities of one's life. Yes, poverty will be removed through the route of economic development. Every one will have enough money. That means no different classes, no difference in standard of living. But dear fellow humans, is that state of equality acceptable to your nature? If it was, then wealth would not have been created on the first place, poverty would not have been born. Equal standard of living, meaning adequate income to everyone, goes against the very purpose of existence of money!
Humans have already proved throughout history that they can not live with equality. So the entire exercise called “economic development” is futile, as far as solving poverty is concerned.
As for the provision of financial help to the underprivileged, it is not just lame, but ridiculously lame. You can only help others when you have more than your natural requirement. Do you have the courage to accept the truth? When you have means to help the poor, it means you are already the root cause of poverty that you are lamely intending to solve!
Poverty is not a problem, but paradoxically, wealth is. Poverty is an outcome of “creation of wealth”. How can something be solved which is not a problem on the first place!
I ask humankind: In the world that you have made around you, can you stop desiring to be wealthy? Can you chuck the hunger for power, control and possession? When these questions are answered you will also know whether poverty can be removed.
Every sane person today considers poverty as a problem, and would like to contribute towards its solution. Some believe they can do so by being a part of economic development of the underprivileged. They would want to provide free education to the poor, so as to make them productive to earn. Some would want to provide food, clothing and financial help or support to the poor to reduce the extent of poverty. There are many ways seemingly good people are contributing today, thinking it would remove poverty one day. To give you my opinion on it, I pity their attempts. Be it economic development of the underprivileged or financial help and support to the poor, they are all lame approaches which can never remove poverty. I call them “lame approaches”, because they are not really solutions to the problem, but masks. By doing so, you can only mask the poverty, not solve it. For removing the problem one has to study the root cause of it and then attempt to curb it from there. So for a change, stop following the crowd and do some real analysis.
First of all we will determine what is called poverty. There are many definitions of poverty, but here we will take the most rational one. Poor are not those who live below poverty line as stated by the government. Poor are not those who have little or no money and few or no material possessions. Poor is one who can not have the basic necessities of life. Thus, my definition of poverty says –
Poverty is the state wherein one is unable to fulfill the basic necessities of life.
Now in today’s world of disparities the term “basic necessities” is subjective. For example, for the people living in the forest of Africa who have no importance and use of material possessions only adequate food is basic necessity of life, without which they would be considered poor, whereas, for me living in the developing country like India television, cell phone and washing machine are basic necessities of life, without which my life’s quality would be considered poor. If you are in the developed country as the US then even a car is a basic necessity. Thus, the definition remains the same, but in different worlds its implications are diverse.
After understanding what poverty is, now let’s move on to find out its root cause. Like many other of our problems poverty too is essentially human phenomenon. There is no poverty in animals. It shows that in nature’s care no one is poor, but every one is equal. Imagine the primitive stage of humankind where humans lived almost naturally. There is no poverty, no different classes, and no difference in standard of living. There is complete equality throughout. That is because when nature creates lives it places enough resources to support lives, and as long as every one is using one’s respective share of resources no one is left without resources and poverty can not arise.
What happened then which gave rise to poverty? When humans got intelligent they developed hunger for social power and desire to control. It gave rise to the tendency to possess more than others, to impact others’ lives and attain control thereby. Humans started collecting and possessing more resources than their natural requirement. This led to scarcity of resources as people started possessing others’ share of resources. When something is scarce it is valuable. Thus, scarcity resulted in value of resources; and when resources become valuable they no more remain just resources, they become wealth. For the first time thus, wealth came into existence. Those possessing wealth became rich, and those whose share was snatched became poor. Different classes were thus created and different standards of living came into existence.
This happened, because intelligent humans, by nature, can not live without the hunger for power and desire to control. Equal standard of living is not acceptable to human nature.
We learned the root cause of poverty. Now consider the present day situation. Unlike the early stage described above, today we have inserted the element called money as a connecting link between resources and the consumers of resources. Resources are no more directly available for consumption. First you have to earn money, and then you can get the resources in exchange of money. Without money there is no access to resources. So, instead of directly possessing resources today’s humans want to possess money. Wealth is changed in form. Money is wealth today.
The so-called economic development is aimed at providing income opportunities to every one. Assuming that one day the whole world will be economically developed, every one will be earning enough money to fulfill the basic necessities of one's life. Yes, poverty will be removed through the route of economic development. Every one will have enough money. That means no different classes, no difference in standard of living. But dear fellow humans, is that state of equality acceptable to your nature? If it was, then wealth would not have been created on the first place, poverty would not have been born. Equal standard of living, meaning adequate income to everyone, goes against the very purpose of existence of money!
Humans have already proved throughout history that they can not live with equality. So the entire exercise called “economic development” is futile, as far as solving poverty is concerned.
As for the provision of financial help to the underprivileged, it is not just lame, but ridiculously lame. You can only help others when you have more than your natural requirement. Do you have the courage to accept the truth? When you have means to help the poor, it means you are already the root cause of poverty that you are lamely intending to solve!
Poverty is not a problem, but paradoxically, wealth is. Poverty is an outcome of “creation of wealth”. How can something be solved which is not a problem on the first place!
I ask humankind: In the world that you have made around you, can you stop desiring to be wealthy? Can you chuck the hunger for power, control and possession? When these questions are answered you will also know whether poverty can be removed.
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