Is Poverty Inevitable?

Is poverty inevitable? Inevitable meaning certain to happen; unavoidable, unescapable. So the question is, is poverty unavoidable? Or is there a way for it to be changed? Well lets look a little deeper and see why there is even poverty in the first place.

For starters, one out of every six people that lives in the United States lives in poverty or near poverty. For children, the rate is even higher. In addition, the system we have for producing and distributing wealth is capitalist. Meaning it is organized in ways that allow a small number to control most of the capital- factories, machinery, tools- used to create wealth. Poverty exists because the economic system is organized in ways that encourage the accumulation of wealth at one end and creates conditions of scarsity that make poverty inevitable at the other. Another example is that Capitalists such as factory owners like to pay the workers as low wages as possible because the need to drive for profit, thus aiming towards high value on competition and efficiency. In addition to low wages, capitalists like to replace workers with machines and full- time workers with part- time workers. And all this leads to the question why pay someone to do it when you can have a machine do it for free?

The decisions of these capitalists might be good for them but have horrible effects on millions of people, and their families and communities. Most of these people depend on working for someone else to make a living, and most of the time even having a full time job doesn't guarantee a decent living.