Nathan Rowley, Chapter 6, Question 5

Although chapter six speaks a lot about poverty, Charles Wheelan ends the chapter on an uplifting note. After posing a series of three pessimistic questions about poverty asking whether poverty is inevitable, Wheelan promptly answers them, "No, no, and no." The reason that poverty must not necessarily exist in an unequal market economy is because economic growth is not a zero-sum game; as the economy continues to grow, everyone will gradually gain greater and greater wealth, even if they may not gain wealth relative to others. Wheelan even posits that it is possible to end poverty in our current economy. He says that families "are not poor because Bill Gates lives in a big house. They are poor despite the fact that Bill Gates lives in a big house." We have reached a point where there is enough wealth for everyone to live comfortably, as Wheelan implies. That there are still people in poverty is not a fault of there not being enough wealth, nor is it because wealth is being withheld from them. It is because of the way our society functions that can prevent people in poverty from getting what they need to improve their lives.