Nelson Mandela: Poverty is Man Made
on Sunday, May 20, 2018Nelson Mandela Money Quote saying we have created poverty by our own decisions and actions and we can change those to eradicate poverty. Nelson Mandela said:
“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings” — Nelson Mandela
In this quote, Nelson Mandela draws a comparison between poverty and unjust systems like slavery and apartheid that have been abolished. His key points are:
- Poverty, like those other human rights violations, is not a natural or inevitable condition but rather something created by human policies and social structures.
- If slavery and apartheid could be ended through human efforts, then poverty too can be overcome and eliminated when people take sufficient, coordinated actions to do so.
- Mandela implies that poverty persists not due to lack of resources or capability, but because not enough has been done politically and socially to establish economic justice and opportunity for all.
The quote conveys Mandela’s belief that poverty is a man-made problem with solutions that lie within human hands, if the will exists to find and implement them on a sufficient scale. He sees poverty as an ethical issue demanding a policy response, rather than an unavoidable fact of life.
Birthday: July 18, 1918 – Death: December 5, 2013