What is Poverty?

What is poverty?

Poverty is a complicated state of being that has been described using many different theories, frameworks and definitions. Like most complicated things, these explanations all reveal bits of truth and all suffer from a lack of complete understanding.

Poverty isn’t just about a lack of money. It has a lot to do with social isolation, something many of us don’t think about.

Ask yourself these questions:
“If I were to lose all my physical assets and money, how long would it take to get a meal?”
“How long would it take to find a place to sleep for the night? For a couple of weeks?”
“How long would it take to get a job?”
Another way of looking at poverty relies on the concept of shalom. The word shalom describes a world in which every person has a position where they are useful and fulfilled and we have good healthy relationships with God, ourselves, the world and other people.

Thus, poverty is the lack of these healthy relationships. People living in poverty do not feel like their lives have meaning. People living in poverty are insecure and make bad decisions to cover up or distract themselves from what they do not like about themselves. People living in poverty work very hard and are not successful; they must consume more than they produce. Finally, people in poverty make daily mistakes in their interactions with others and they find that the other people in their social circle are unreliable. They suffer for the mistakes they make or that others make.

Many people who live in poverty are poor, but their financial problems are more a symptom of poverty than a cause.