Capitalism is not to blame for the suffering of the poor

# Context<br>As a financial analyst I've been on reddit for merely a month and everyday I see the same threads and the same comments hating on the wealthy, saying how capitalism is to blame for the suffering of the poor, which is just a lie. When looking at the comments I notice some people do agree with me, but the vast majority seems to be blamed on capitalism and the wealthy. I just want to share my view on why the poor are struggling and why I think it is not the fault of capitalism or the wealthy. I'm from the Netherlands and I've lived in Surinam (a poor country) for 3 years, Curaçao for 3 years and in South Africa for 3 years as well. So I feel like I have a good idea of what poverty is and how people live in the underdeveloped part of the world. I've worked with homeless people as a minor and in my early 20s I worked with drug addicts. I feel like people who hate on the wealthy or on capitalism don't really know what it is to be poor.<br>## Why poor countries are struggling <br>I believe the vast majority of why countries are poor is to blame on the government. I've lived in Surinam, South-Africa and Curaçao. And three things are clear in these countries: (1) massive government corruption and (2) a lack of education. The government is corrupt and due to this corruption a lot of the tax money and foreign aid does not end up with the people who actually need it, but with politicians and their family. Furthermore, the educational system is very bad in these countries. I've seen with my own eyes how teachers during class are more on their phones than teaching students anything. This is also due to underpaying teachers and due to corruption of the government. The government in these countries are also very bad in investing in big industries. They can for example invest in becoming a big producer in oil, which will attract other companies from abroad to invest in the country due to cheap oil. I think a good example is Saudi-Arabia who became extremely wealthy due to their oil production. Take Haiti for example, who has a lot of gold, but due to massive corruption this gold is being sold on the black market to people like the DRC and due to this the economy of Haiti is not really growing from this.<br>## Why people in wealthy countries are struggling<br>I believe that in wealthy countries, it is a combination of bad government policies and the people's own choices. Let me explain. In the Netherlands for example we've had a lot of homeless people, but the amount of homeless people on the streets was reduced by 20% due to the financial crisis. Now you might wonder how come? It's simple; the government decided to allocate less money for institutions who helped-alcohol and drug addicts, so these institutions had to layoff people and due to this more people were on the streets talking to homeless people and giving them support. More people were out on the streets and more homeless people were getting in touch with these people. After talking with them long enough they would eventually get into the system and start living in a group home or something similar. This is where the government failed. I believe that we should help our fellow people who are struggling by supporting them with financial help, education and guidance. <br>I believe that the majority of the people who are struggling are struggling due to their own choices. In my experience a lot of the drug addicts and homeless people, grew up in a broken home, with alcoholic parents or had some other form of abuse when they were young. Due to this they start drinking alcohol or start doing drugs at a young age. And eventually this escalates in becoming a full-blown alcohol or drug addict. Furthermore, due to drinking or due to drugs, their partners cheats on them or leaves them due to their addiction. I do think we need to help these people, but from my experience if you give them financial help, they will spend it on alcohol/drugs/other addictive things. If you give them a place to sleep, but no guidance, they will bunk every morning and due to this lose their spot in the group home. I think that we need to be more hands-on with these people and help them with more than just financial resources. We need to give them guidance and support. I myself used to be an addict. I started smoking weed at age 10 and I escalated to doing cocaine, which eventually lead to me losing my brother due to a fight I started. I then realized I had a problem. I didn't have financial resources, so I needed help. I was lucky enough to get into a Christian institution and they helped me. I had to follow a 9-month long program and they gave me guidance and the willpower to never touch drugs again. I've been sober for 7 years now. The point I'm trying to make here is that a lot of the people who are struggling with poverty are due to their own fault. I do think we need to help them, but we need to take a different approach. I believe the government should allocate less money on financial resources, but on guidance and helping people get out of the system. I also believe that the government needs to invest more on getting institutions who help these people more out on the streets to help people and talk to them who are in need.<br>## Why capitalism is not to blame<br>Capitalism is not to blame for people struggling. I believe that with all my heart. When looking at capitalism it is simply companies competing with each other to sell the most products possible. It brings prosperity and it lifts people out of the system. The wealthy are wealthy because they took a risk and were willing to fail. They had a vision and saw an opportunity to fill a need in the system. And yes companies do exploit their employees from time to time, but that does not mean that we should blame capitalism. We should blame the companies exploiting their employees. Capitalism brings prosperity. It is the best system out there and it is simply not true that due to one person getting wealthy another must become poor. This is simply a lie.<br>## Conclusion<br>In conclusion I believe that governments are to blame for why countries are poor and why people are poor. It is due to their own fault. I do not believe that we should sit back and watch them struggle. We need to help them with more than just financial resources. We need to be hands-on with them and give them guidance. I do not think that the wealthy or capitalism is to blame for why people are suffering. Capitalism is not to blame.