Poverty persists because we LET IT. Because we choose not to take the steps to end it; despite having the resources, technology, and capability to do so. 
 
It's not a matter of scarce resources but of our priorities. Trillions are spent annually on military spending, corporate subsidies, and massive tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, while proven poverty reduction strategies like providing a universal basic income, affordable housing, and quality education remain underfunded and politicized. Maintaining economic inequality is the foundation to our current system, it stays this way to continuously enrich the richest. Our policy choices, economic systems, and social attitudes—are carefully maintained by those who benefit the most. In essence, poverty continues not because it is inevitable, but because we allow systems that have created it and continue to sustain it to go unchallenged.