From wikipedia : the causes of poverty

Poverty has various causes, while some of them can be removed by various measures, eliminating the most complicated underlying causes remains a challenge for both developed and developing nations. Some of the causes of poverty include changing trends in a country’s economy, lack of education, high divorce rate which causes feminization of poverty, having a culture of poverty, overpopulation, epidemic diseases such as AIDS and malaria,^[1] and environmental problems such as lack of rainfall.^[2][3]
It is hard to separate the causes of poverty from the effects, there is no doubt that poverty is associated with various economic and social ills. For example, overpopulation could be a cause or a side effect of poverty.
Another difficulty arises when a distinction is made between the proximate cause, intermediate cause, and the fundamental causes of poverty. The proximate cause is the nearest cause in the chain of causation A->B->C->D. In the example just used, the fundamental cause of D is A, and factors B and C are intermediate causes.

Listing the Causes of Poverty

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• War
• Disease
• Declining union influence
• Economic structures
• Lack of education
• Parents leaving the family
• Divorce
• Teenage pregnancy
• Domestic abuse
• Employment abuse
• Immigrant status
• Minority status
• Physical and mental illness and disability
• Loss of job
• Low wage rates
• High medical bills
• Fraud
• Oppression
• Theft
• Disasters
• Fires
• Flood
• Poverty Imperative
• Lack of or inability to afford adequate health insurance
• Lack of awareness of government policy
• Industrial change
• Apathy
• Greed
• Overpopulation
• Inequality
• Dictatorships
• Racism
• Globalization
• Social Factors
• High taxation
• High growth rate of population
• Lack of job opportunities in secondary sector
• Lack of land resources
• Lack of industrialization
• Over dependence on agriculture
• Inflationary pressure
• Unemployment
• Drug abuse
• Income inequalities
• Accidents
• Stolen money
• Natural disasters
• Vulnerability
• Government

See also

• Poverty
• Poverty reduction

The factors causing poverty and suffering

References

1. Lusted, Marcia Amidon (2010). Poverty. Edina, Minn.: ABDO Pub. p. 31. ISBN 9781604539578.
2. Harrison, Paul (1993). Inside the third world : the anatomy of poverty (3. ed.). New York: Penguin Books. p. 20. ISBN 9780140172171.
3. White, Howard; Killick, Tony (2001). African poverty at the millennium : causes, complexities, and challenges (1. print. ed.). Washington, D.C.: World Bank. p. 27. ISBN 0821348671.