What causes poverty in a modern, civilised, industrial society?

Because the old saying "It takes money to make money" still holds true today. Yes, some can get up by talent, or education, but these things require money as well. I know that government and charities try to help, but giving someone $5 (or 5 pounds) when they needed $10 is not much of a help, especially when you tell them that if someone else gives them the other 5, they owe the first 5 back to you. For example, gov gives you 5 for food, you then get the other 5 from a church, gov finds out about it and demands their 5 back. Then, to top it off, gov tells you that you cheated by getting an extra 5 and are now disqualified from any further help. Government welfare programs do not work because they do not fix poverty, they only bandage it. Think about it, if someone were stuck down a hundred foot hole, you would give them a 110 foot rope, wouldn't you?(the extra 10 is to wrap around their waist.) The gov would give them a 50 foot rope and tell them to struggle up the other 50. And yes, some people are just lazy, but not the majority.

So we have a modern, civilised and industrial society, that is enough to make anyone impoverished eh? All societies have poor people in them, industrial societies are the worst when it come to impoverishing people, more so than any agrarian one. I live on a war disability pension and get £8500 PA, I want to work but can't and violently resent being told that the poor are lazy and feckless, those that say that are ingorant cnuts.

Greed causes poverty in a modern civilised industrial society. Greed causes poverty. Not all poor people are lazy, many are in very complex circumstances, and even some of those work very, very hard to 'do their bit for society' but are still cast with the same brush as being 'lazy' (your word) Do you believe people choose to live in greed?

i blame capitalism to some degree...because this type of system invokes greed in people...since there is little to no control on the market, people tend to over price things and sell it for maximum profit....and when very few people afford it, most can not...and so they borrow money or take it from some where else to pay for another thing....and this routine makes the general public brook most of the time........and for the people that can't afford it at all, they will be the very poor once....they atleast need some money to be in the game but they have no way to get that money.....some people escape this but most do not.....and yes some are just plane lazy

In the US at any rate you are highly unlikely to be poor if you: 1. Graduate high school 2. Get a job -- any job 3. Get married and have children -- in that order. Failing to do those things is what resigns people to poverty.

it's government or corruption from crime usually

We didn't have poverty 30 years ago, then we had Thatch...