Download or read book Poverty Begets Poverty; The Vicious Cycle and the Spillovers written by Agbada Agbada and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Due to the pervasiveness of poverty in our society, we may all be familiar with the concept. But a lot of persons, including policymakers, may only understand poverty as an abstract concept and may not understand how it shapes the lives of people in reality. Particularly, its cyclical and generational effect is often not appreciated. There is a common misconception that the poor are partly to blame for their poverty; that every man is responsible for his own life and the outcome of a person depends on his choices and efforts. In essence, the poor somewhat deserve their poverty and the rich equally deserve their wealth. This argument may have its merits and I do not seek to undermine the importance of choice and individual responsibility in life, but the argument is an oversimplification of the problem. People are not just poor because of the bad choices they make or their inability to take personal responsibility for their lives. Poverty is usually thrust on people by circumstances simply beyond their control. And the grip of poverty is so strong that the poor are usually in too weak a position to steer themselves to prosperity. The systemic effects of poverty on society are far reaching and we have a collective duty to come to the aid of the poor.