What is poverty? Poverty can be defined in different ways, but according to the encyclopedia, poverty is the lack of many things such as basic human needs e.g. clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education , clothing and housing. The inability to pay them is the cause of poverty. The cause and effect of poverty occurs in many different places. Some may say that poverty can be the result of a lack of money, but the truth runs deeper than that. The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the main causes and sub-causes, as well as the effects of poverty. Some are education, hunger, health insurance, homelessness, crime, and some secondary causes such as depression, obesity, substandard housing, and stress. Poverty harms a person's health throughout their life. Poverty has a considerable impact on society as a whole. Poverty takes away someone's opportunity to benefit. Poor people tend to have poor medical care, and more than a third of the population lacks health insurance. Sometimes people may be uninsured, making them less accessible to preventative care, treatment, general care, or diagnostic services. The poor are generally more likely to die from infectious diseases due to their lack of health care. People living in poverty also face the highest risk of infant mortality. Infant mortality is the risk of death during the first year of life. Substandard housing is facilities in which people live who do not have adequate heating, cooling, electricity, or structural durability. Poverty is linked to substandard housing, as people live in overcrowding, with dangerous lead-based paint, lack of heat, broken windows and locks, and collapsing homes. In substandard housing, people also live in infested areas... middle of paper......if you don't get an education. Few jobs in this world hire well-paid people with no education. History has proven that there is in fact a direct link between poverty and crime in the United States, even though the United States is full of good-hearted citizens. Poverty is linked to crime because poor people are more likely to be involved in street crime. These crimes include assaults, robberies, burglaries and car thefts. Poor people are more likely to be arrested, prosecuted and convicted, even imprisoned. The relationship between poverty and crime has been a controversial topic over the years. The poor make up the overwhelming majority of people behind bars as 53% of incarcerated people earned less than $10,000 per year before their incarceration. Ultimately, poverty is a major cause of social tensions, which can divide a nation because of these tensions. problems.