If people are poor it is their own fault

There are more than a billion people living on less than $1 per day and 2.7 billion living on less than
$2 per day thus implying that there is certainly a substantial amount of people living in poverty.
However such a claim is not a completely just statement and I disagree that it is the peoples own
fault for being poor as circumstances can be such. One example is being born in a less developed
country (LDC) where necessary infrastructures such as schools that can help people break out of the
vicious poverty cycle are either unavailable or inaccessible. There is also poor governance and
traditional practices which are the more significant contributing factors to people being poor.

Education can be said to the key to prosperity as indeed it equips individuals with the fundamental
skills and qualifications to secure a decent career and thus earn enough money to overcome being
poor. However, in countries located in Sub-Saharan Africa, where most of the 800 million people
that go hungry worldwide reside in, literacy rates are dismal because schools are scarce. The overall
literacy rate in Mali is mere 27.7% compared to 100% of that of Luxembourg. Without adequate
education the poor are unable to clinch good jobs with good wages and are forced to take up jobs in
the primary sector such as farming which do not help them earn much. In addition, most of these
families lack sexual education and have bad family planning, thus they give birth to more children
than they can actually financially afford. This further exacerbates their poverty situation as they
never had much money to start with.

Good governance is of paramount importance to the progress of a country. Government officials
must put their own interests aside and selflessly work together or the betterment of the country.
However with the increasing prevalence of corruption among such officials, social and economic
development are hindered and poverty of the people is increased as domestic and foreign
investment are diverted away from where it is most needed. In 2009 former president of the
Maldives Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was alleged to have embezzled US$40 million from a grant from
the Emir of Qatar which was actually to help victims of tsunami restart their lives. Furthermore in
countries like North Korea most of the revenue earned by the country is distributed only among the
elite minority. In fact they score an astonishing 8 out of a 100 in the corruption perceptions index
and gdp per capita is 506.

In many countries, traditional practices such as the caste system and female discrimination are
rampant especially in India, Afghanistan and various parts of the African Continent. Meritocracy is
not an underlying principle in these societies as caste systems are strongly abided by. In fact this
system imposes strict rules over the people that govern the abilities and freedom of people. In India
one may simply be born into a family of pariahs and may not have necessarily done any
wrongdoing, but that itself is enough to take away any available opportunities to him.