When I was growing up, I was always told that poverty was a simple issue. My dad, you see, was an extreme conservative. Don't get me wrong; he was a nice man, and someone who really cared about his family and his friends, but his politics were ruthless. No matter what the articles on poverty in the paper said, he believed that poverty had one cause and one cause only – people were lazy. If the poor worked hard, he said, they would not be poor anymore.

Of course, it was not very long before I learned the truth. Every article on poverty that I read confirmed my initial suspicion. Poverty, I found out, is a complex international issue, but it has more to do with greed than laziness. Read any article on poverty, and you will find out the truth of the matter. Poorer people, whether they be residents of first world slums or average folks in third world countries, work longer and harder hours than the rich. Any article on poverty in the developing world will tell you that the kids in some of these countries start working 18 hour days in sweatshops when they are nine and ten years old. Any article on poverty that tries to disguise these facts is guilty of deliberately distorting the truth for political ends. In short, it is guilty of being a lie.

For example, I recently read an excellent article on homelessness. It was done by a reporter who spent several months following around and getting to know several homeless people in New York city. He found out that they all suffered from serious and often crippling problems that prevented them from getting out of poverty. It was perhaps the most illuminating and lucidly researched article on poverty that I had read in a very long time. It showed that chronic physical, mental, and emotional problems – as well as a lack of infrastructure and a really tough job market – would ensure that even the most resourceful people would have little or no chance to succeed once they fell into the pit of homelessness.

I wish that my dad had opened up an article on poverty now and again. He was a really good guy, but he did not want to see the truth that was written in the articles about poverty that I would try to bring to him. I guess that opening his mind was hard for him.