There is a simplified view in society: if someone does not have enough money, it is their own fault. Poverty is personified as character traits – laziness, carelessness, inability to plan, weakness, lack of motivation. This is a convenient characterization because it means that the system and its policies are not seen as the problem. A moral hierarchy is created, with the poor always at the bottom.
The result is a toxic environment: poverty becomes a stigma rather than a problem to be solved. People are morally condemned for something they cannot even control. At the same time, those who condemn them are often unaware of how much their own lives are determined by status and access to resources.
This view influences the system and its policies: assistance is limited, condemned, and “tied” to bureaucratic control, while the distribution of resources to companies or influential groups is seen as normal and necessary.
As long as poverty is seen as a set of character traits rather than the result of circumstances, discussions about equality will always remain ideological rather than practical. Society chooses – to condemn or to understand.