Poverty Traps...

Economists often refer to an equilibrium called 'Poverty Trap' - which is an scenario in which people experience poverty because of facts that are out of their control - thus, staying poor forever.

Without getting too much into the economics, I wanted to share with you an 'alternative' explanation of this phenomenon, which I saw in 'Mafalda' - a very popular Argentinian comic strip during the sixties and seventies.



Susanita, the character at the left, says:
-"C'mon! Don't you understand that they are poor because they want to? Use your brain... use your brain!"
Mafalda replies:
-"Ohh, my god!"
Then Susanita talks again:
- "Think about the hovels they live in, the bad and ugly furniture they have, the clothes they use! Don't you understand that if they already earn too little money, and besides that they have the guts of spending it in bad quality products, they will stay poor forever?"
Then when Mafalda leaves she thinks to herself:
-"There is nothing to do with people who don't think enough..."

PS: Just for the record, the purpose is only to understand what a poverty trap is... Not to learn about policy making from Susanita...