Roots of Poverty

Mumbai slum street scene

War, disease, famine, debt, unsafe water and many other things contribute to poverty in the world, But are these the root causes of poverty? We need to drill a bit deeper, and as we do, we come face to face with human nature and attitudes.  In this article I argue that things like greed, fear, power and prejudice are the real root causes of a state of affairs where a quarter of the world lives in absolute poverty and many more live without the “necessities” that we take for granted.