Poverty is valuable to politicians. Extremely valuable. If you understand Spanish I urge you listen to what Gloria Alvarez has been saying now for many years:

Poverty is valuable to politicians. Extremely valuable. If you understand Spanish I urge you listen to what Gloria Alvarez has been saying now for many years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkYEXS16dZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkYEXS16dZA Latin America has been waking up to the realities of Populism. This, to a large extent, due to Gloria quite literally risking her life to speak-up and educate the populous about such topics. In the above lined speech she delivers a line that is right on point (translated): "Populism loves the poor so much it multiplies them". That, right there, is the root of much of the evil keeping the poor down. In another passage she reads a definition of Populism penned by another activist: "The shortcut through which politicians play with the passions, dreams and ideals of people by promising what is impossible, taking advantage of their misery while leaving out logic and reason. It plays with their needs to impose dictatorships." You see, in the US, Democrats need poor disenfranchised blacks and hispanics. Guaranteed votes. And Republicans need poor disenfranchised bible-thumpers and low education folks. Again, guaranteed votes. Writing that was disgusting. Yet, it is the truth. And so, both sides, through Populism, have every incentive to NEVER fix the problems of the poor. If the poor are elevated it is likely that both sides would lose votes. Politicians don't want to work hard for votes. They'd rather promise the impossible and play to your needs and fears and just get you to vote. Once elected, they drop you on your head. Want to point a finger at evil? Populism. All four of the top contenders for the Presidency of the US today are populists: Clinton, Sanders, Cruz and Trump. They are all playing people like a finely tuned violin. All of them. Nothing good will come out of electing any of them. Regrettably, there doesn't seem to be a way out of this one. Not voting will only play into the hands of whoever promises more free shit and gets more people to support them. Poverty isn't hard to fix. First you have to fix the fact that poor people are far more valuable politically while they stay down and remain poor. Imagine a political system where politicians are actually rewarded for fixing problems like poverty. Not sure what that looks like. You'd have to take Populism out of the equation.