Comment on Root Cause

Also, a note on poverty:

A friend told me he believes that poverty is the root cause of things like genocide, which I am currently reading about.

It would be entirely absurd for me or anyone to deny that poverty has anything to do with the current state of the world. But it would be rather naive of us to underestimate the influence of factors other than poverty.

Poverty is relative. If you have nothing to compare to, while you might accept that life is hard, you would not realize that you are poor. Poverty isn't a natural disaster, like earthquakes or tsunamis. In order for poverty to exist, something must happen to make the comparison take place, either exist as a visible neighbor (and from there, neighborhood dramas ...) or as a force that robs.

Rule of thumb: if you're jealous and greedy, you'll fight. If you've been robbed not just of all your riches but also your dignity and history, you'll fight and do more and much worse.

People commit genocides and other crimes not just because they're poor. Crimes of the poor are crimes with the intent of primal survival. Crimes of the desperate are crimes of something else -- I haven't figured that out yet.