Root Causes of Poverty

I had to write this for one of my classes and figured it could be shared with more than just my class!

If the question were, what are the causes of poverty, there is quite a bit mentioned in the readings. Here are some I noted:

-lack of social responsibility
-class segregation
-discrimination
-individualism
-consumerism
-spiritual individualism leading to economic individualism
-composition of family life
-geographical location
-weakening unions
-low paying jobs
-economic injustice

However, the question is not what are the causes of poverty, but rather the ROOT causes of poverty. Although the causes of poverty are complex. The root cause, in my opinion, is simple: sin.

In my experience, Christians can agree that sin exists. However, the perpetuation of poverty comes through the variations of how sin is viewed. Some say the poor are poor because they sin (i.e. lack of discipline or poor decision making). There is some truth to this, however, I frequently see the sin of the wealthy overlooked. In scripture, when sin is addressed on an economic level, it is always the rich that are sinning. Other sin that is addressed is attributed to sin that all humans experience regardless of economic status. To extend that further, not only sin by the rich, but also sin by leaders is rebuked by God (Isaiah 10:2, 1:15-17, Amos 5:15, Micah 3:1-4 and 9-12). Scripture often speaks of sin as not only what we do, but what we do not do. There is a quote I once heard that I like "evil is not perpetuated by bad people doing bad things, but rather by good people doing nothing". So many are quick to point out the sin of the poor, but we appear to struggle or feel uncomfortable pointing out the sin of the wealthy and of leaders. This is an area of sin I am working on!

Another variation of how sin is viewed is regarding individual sin verses communal & systemic sin. In my experience of American Christianity, sin is often viewed as an individual experience. However, in scripture, we see sin committed by whole nations as is the case in Amos, for example. We also see sin in systems (Colossians 1:16). This variation goes well with the reading by Hilfiker that suggests a cause of poverty is spiritual individualism which led to economic individualism.

All throughout the readings, poverty is discussed with particular focus on the United States. The poverty that plagues so much of the world is quite frankly much greater than that of the U.S. People are eating rocks. Death due to starvation is staggering. Yes, America has a problem, but we must not forget the world. I believe America really needs to look at the sin it is committing not only within the nation, but as a nation against other nations.