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This post is in response to the question "What do you believe are some of the contributing factors to poverty?" posed by 
There are many different causes for poverty cycles especially when we consider global poverty opposed to poverty within the United States. For the latter, causes of poverty can be seen in various systems we have that reduce access to education, healthcare, housing, employment, etc. for individuals that were born into an impoverished family, have disabilities, aren’t white, are gender nonconforming, aren’t heterosexual, etc. Additionally, mass incarceration plays a large role in poverty cycles in many communities where the community is disrupted and harmed by over-policing. However, in the case of the global south that suffers from the most extreme forms of poverty, political scientists have explained these cycles of poverty as various “poverty traps.” These include the poverty traps that are caused by government/police corruption, disease, and resources as well as other things. These traps serve as cycles that continuously decrease the chances of moving out of poverty. The idea is also that these countries are unable to end these cycles without financial aid or some kind of assistance from other countries. For example, in countries that have low GDP, lack of resources, and a lack of infrastructure investment on sanitation practices, they are more likely to have high rates of disease that then affects their ability to economically prosper. With an influx of aid from other more developed countries, poverty traps are better able to fix these problems and escape the trap. So, cycles of a continuous lack of access to methods of betterment (education, healthcare, sanitation, government transparency, sexual education, etc.) are typically what causes poverty in all its forms. Sometimes the answer to this is financial aid, sometimes it’s better education, and sometimes its in other ways. Regardless, the point is that contributing factors to poverty is a complex web of things that prevent people from advancing themselves.