
1. Introduction:
As years come to pass, poverty levels keep rising day by day. The levels are so high and alarming today. Looking at the state of peoples’ lives today-its undesirable. An extent where someone cannot afford basic needs like food, clothes and shelter is so so sad. This is where we ask ourselves-why are things so? Why are people suffering to that extent? What are the reasons behind these poverty levels?
2. What Is Poverty?
Poverty is a state of lacking money or resources to provide for oneself or others. It is when peoples have poor standards of living or undesirable. When they are not able to afford basic needs like food, clothes, water etc., it means they are poor and dont have money or resources.
3. Key Take Aways.
Poverty is;
- undesirable.
- feeling hungry but not able to eat because you can’t afford a meal.
- being unable to afford medical bills/see a doctor for check up.
- sleeping on the streets because you don’t have a house.
- being unable to study because there is no school fees.
- being unable to afford good clothes to wear.
- drinking unclean water because you can’t afford clean water.
4. 10 Causes Of Rising Poverty Levels Today?
There are so many reasons behind the rising levels of poverty today. Some are caused by ourselves, others social, economic factors.
1. The High Unemployment Levels Today.
Many people don’t have jobs. The available jobs are few compared to the number of people who are able to work. There is a huge number of unemployed youths today. We have seen graduates roaming around the streets in cities looking for jobs in vain. If someone is unemployed therefore, they have no source of income hence unable to afford their basic needs. This leads to poverty.

2. Income Inequality Today.
Income inequality is the uneven distribution of income in society. This brings about income difference in the population i.e. it creates 2 groups, the rich and the poor. The ones who earn more money become the rich and the ones who earn less become the poor. Income inequality is caused by many factors.
Causes Of Income Inequality Today: 8 Simple Insights.
3. An Outbreak Of A Pandemic.
A pandemic is the sudden outbreak and widespread of a certain disease cutting across all nations. e.g. Ebola outbreak, Covid 19 etc. These lead to the standstill of everything i.e. from transport to businesses to education. For instance, we witnessed the covid 19 experience where they announced total lockdown to avoid its spread. Businesses collapsed, students did not study and everyone was affected. These such outbreaks lead to poverty because they make you lag behind as a person and as a country at large.
4. High Levels Of Exploitation At Work.
There’s a lot of exploitation of workers today. Many companies/bosses exploit their workers in many ways. For instance, they overwork their employees, give them low pay, poor working conditions which lead to accidents like, falls or even deaths etc. This leads to poor standards of living e.g. not having time for family and low pay makes you unable to cater for personal needs.
5. Nature Of Currency Value.
The currency of some countries has less value. You will literally buy few goods and services with much money. You will use many notes/coins to purchase just a few things and before you know it, the money is done. This leads to low standards of living. This is because someone will work really hard to make sure they accumulate that kind of money to buy many goods and services.
6. Laziness.
Some people are just lazy. I mean how do you expect to get a high standard of living when;- you wake up every morning and do nothing the whole day? how do you intend to get what to eat if you don’t work? If you say you don’t have what to do- you are just lazy, you are not creative. Laziness causes poverty because for real earning just doesn’t happen as a miracle, you have to work for it.
7. High Taxation.
Income earners are subjected to high taxation by the Revenue Authority. Almost everything is taxed from salary to goods and services. We have Pay As You Earn(PAYE), Value Added Tax(VAT) etc. These taxes are good because they help in social and economic growth of a country. Unfortunately, even the extremely poor people are subjected to high taxes. A farmer will harvest their yields, take to the market to sell and get money for other needs -they are taxed. This makes the poor to remain poorer and never get out of this because even when they try, they got no escape out of this-sad.
8. Natural Calamities.
Natural calamities like drought, floods and earthquake. Too much sunshine can dry crops hence hunger. Too much rain causes floods which sweeps away people, crops and buildings. Drought is often caused by natural factors like waterbody temperatures and artificial factors like cutting of trees. Floods are caused by heavy rains among others. This such calamity affects a community for decades and it takes long for it to recover from such. This leads to poverty because of hunger since everything dried up or was swept away.
9. Price Fluctuations In The Market.
In the economic world today, prices are determined by the forces of demand and supply. The higher the price, the lower the quantity demanded and the lower the price the higher the quantity demanded. This mostly affect the poor. The poor are unable to afford certain goods and services even if they are a necessity because their price is high. This is not the case with the rich-they will afford.
10. Political Instability.
Political instability causes poverty. If the president running a given country dies, power overthrow etc. there’s likely going to be war hence instability. Conflicts between countries, wars which leads to loss of lives leads, food, shelter. This leads to the outbreak of hunger hence poverty.
In Conclusion, poverty is an undesirable state in life. No one deserves to be poor in this life today. Above are some of the causes of poverty we have to know today.