Hi Peace, you know, I would love to read the whole thread, but there are over 400 posts. I think that is a tad unrealistic. However, all I did was post my opinions about poverty and it's possible causes. They jumped on me for having an opinion (please read). To quote you 'But they argue, and I agree with them, that poverty is now an institution, and people caught in it have much less chance than people who are not poor, and that makes sense.' I respectfully disagree, lazy non-poor people will soon be poor (assuming we are not talking about the rich, silver-spoon in their mouth types, most of them are lazy and rely on inheritances), but poor hard-working-and-ambitious people will soon be 'non-poor' . It all boils down to what you make of your opportunities, and how hard you try to create said opportunities. Thank you, this is all I will say about this in this thread. Thanks everyone for the welcome !!!!