Poverty and Minds of People

Poverty and Minds of People

Poverty is one of the largest problems for most in the world. Why is this? Poverty has many different causes: not enough amounts of jobs, not enough food, poor decisions of the government, overpopulation, unequal distributions of resources, and environmental degradation. All of these causes of poverty are real. However, are these the only causes? Is there another reason for poverty to exist which is maybe an even deeper cause, but which is not discussed as often as other causes? Perhaps this cause is even one of the biggest because it can explain not only what makes people poor, but also because it can explain why people continue to stay poor.

Psychology of peoples is what we should concentrate on in order to figure out the poverty problem. Understanding the way people think can help to resolve poverty around the world. The true reason for success and material wealth is not the resources that people have, but it is the way they think, talk and act. If we compare the way how poor and rich people think, we can see why psychology is one of the biggest reasons for poverty. Poor people usually think and talk about their existing problems and focus on negative events that surround their lives. Wealthy people, in contrast, think and talk about positive events that happen in their lives. Poor people believe that there is not going to be a better future for them. In Poor Economics, Duflo believes: "It is possible that people who don't envision substantial improvements in their future quality of life opt to stop trying and therefore end up staying where they are." (p.229) Wealthy people think about their future in totally different ways. They believe in a better future, and try to improve it. Another important factor of psychology of poor people comparing to the psychology of rich or wealthy people is that the poor generally don't have any goals toward which they can save some money while wealthy people think about long-term goals and try to save in order to achieve those goals. As Duflo claims in Poor Economics: "Saving is less attractive for the poor, because for them the goal tends to be very far away, and they know that there will be lots of temptations along the way. But of course, if they do not save they remain poor." (p. 199) There may be also other psychological factors that keep people in poverty. Stress, depression, not believing in your own potential, and the fear of another failure all stop people from fully realizing that there might be a better future.

So, there is no doubt that overpopulation, unequal distributions of resources in the world's economy, environmental degradation are all the reasons for poverty in this world. However, it appears that it is more possible that wealth is a result of the right way of thinking, positive beliefs and long-term planning. "It is too hard to stay motivated when everything