What causes poverty in developing countries?

For details, start with Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations", then read books by the "Austrian School" of economics. Friedrich von Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Henry Hazlitt, and more.

Basically, it depends on culture and religion. The stupider the culture and the stupider the religion, the more backward.

One example, the white race came to South America, Central America, and North America at about the same time. The South was settled by Catholics. The North was settled by Protestants. In Catholic cultures, graft and bureaucracy is the way of life. In Northern cultures, not so much. Now that we are catching up, more and more Catholics and Muslims (another stupid religion), and more and more graft, corruption, and government bureaucracy, we are joining the pestholes such as Mexico in their growing poverty.

Greed, corruption, exploitation, and ignorance. All can be applied to the past and the present and are negative attributes of human nature. So is using religion as an excuse in the absence of ones ability to think humane.

Dabeaner nailed the answer - I think he used some sort of laser technology to get it "right on" as he did. Lots to learn from him I think ...

development is a multidimensional process involving major changes in social structure ,popular atittude, national institutions,acceleration of economic growth ,reduction of inequalities ,and the eradication of absolute poverty in society.in the case of me ,developing countries are too traditional.that is people are suck to the past and not ready to be developed. Also, they only focus on how to subsist. thus their system of production is only limited to what will be required to feed their families and only adopt the traditional system of farming instead of focusing on commercial farming .they are also, interested on import instead of export

Several reasons. Living above your possibilities. Loosing job and not cutting expenses. Are the basics.

Cut on luxury if can't pay for it...

illiteracy.......mother of every problem!!!

The use or thread of force against innocent people. In other words, the right to life and property. This includes taxation, confiscation, regulatory controls, or out right expropriation. If people were protected from criminals (including the government) they would invest and thrive. People could hire workers and workers can find employment. A baker, a shoe maker, and plumber, mechanic, builder, grocer, etc would all have the opportunity to pave their own way. Impoverished country have so much to gain from a market economy that if we could just realize that what they lack is not resources, but basic individual right, the world will be brought out of the dark ages and into modern civilization.

I think ignorance, dirty politics, use of religion in politics, corruption, etc are the causes of poverty.

the same reasons it is prevalent in developed countries. The economy, lack of resources,education etc.

What causes poverty in developing countries?

Well, I'll try to boil down to a brief argument. Developing countries lack of resources, including medical technology, sense of hygiene, preventive services, social services, and very restricted economic development. The thing is, the majority of the devloping countries is governed under oligarchy, arbitrary, and totalitarian regime, such as North Korea, most African countries, as well as China.

The developing countries are mostly isolated from the rest of the world, and the reclusive restraint hinders them from receiving international aid as well as exchange of knowledge.

North Koreans have no idea what the outside world is like, because the government even bans the use of cell phone, not to mention that the citizens in North Korea couldn't picture the freedom of rights in any form.

The Chinese have been experiencing booming economy over the years, and prosperity is the scheme the arbitrary government employs to keep the people's mouth shut and defer to the dictatorship.

Since the developing countries cannot advance technology, the amount of agricultural as well a manufacturing production will be curtailed. So the supply is always inproportionate to the population demand. That's how famine and emaciation occur in these developing countries.

Also, the access to reach higher social status is rather challenging for rank-and-file citizens in the developing countries. Therefore, inequality and widening gap between the affluents and the impoverished saturate in these countries as well. Like in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and these countries in Africa with the world's most petroleum preservation are dominated by the extreme wealthy individuals, while there are still great numbers of starvation below the horizon.

It's really hard to ameliorate the current predicament in these countries, because they are dominated by arbitrary regimes that suppress people from repelling against the government and calling for freedom. When people learn to defer to the totalitarian regimes, the contingency is that they will learn to accept the current status quo, without struggling for a change.

Basically, confinement in the deveopoing countries is what accounts for poverty, which is often accompanied by famine and starvation. I hope this answers to your puzzle. I know that I've done a lousy job in generalizing my standpoint in a nutshell. May be I'm talkative.

mintinfo has the right answer .Greed by more developed countries that take unfair advantage of third world countries.Not that everyone in the more developed countreies think that way ,but those who do ,unfortunately have had the power to do so in the past.certainly did.No doubt about that at all.Africa has huge mineral deposits that the more developed countries have exploited for at least two centuries.Then there is corruption in the African government as well.