There are nearly 7.5 billion people in the world, of which, according to dosomething.org, "Nearly 1/2 of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day." These figures are absolutely astonishing, especially for those that live in the comfortable conditions in which they not only make considerably more money than $2.50/day but have air conditioning, indoor plumbing, good food and good healthcare, transportation, and all the accouterments of reasonable success or even better.
While there are a lot of theories and arguments about why we have so many poor people, of which it is reasonable to assume that things such as a lack of education, or a lack of opportunity, or laziness, or drug abuse, or economic systems, or because it is a zero-sum world, that each probably holds some truth to it; but the bottom line, though, is that the most obvious reason why today there are so many poor people, has a lot more to do with governmental systems and corporate structures, that create the exploitation of the poor, for the benefit of those that exploit them.
That is to say, those that are very rich and/or very powerful, are absolutely determined to remain in that position for themselves, as well as for their family, in addition to their compatriots, and in order to do so, it is, in short, necessary that a structure is in place, that favors them at every turn of the card, and disfavors those that in mass could be a threat to the system as it is. So that, the masses of people that do not have that beautiful mansion, that do not have judges on call, that do not have connections at the highest level of government as well as at corporate structures, that therefore are on the outside and not on the inside, are going to, in one way or another, in one form or another, need to be kept at bay, for there is way too many of those masses, which are a constant real possible threat to the few.
This then does mean that the mass of mankind must be exploited at every conceivable turn, in every conceivable way, and kept distracted from seeing the reality of what is really going on, but instead are enticed to somnolence and complacency with intoxications and entertainment of all sorts in order to keep the population relatively pacified, in which, the little money and opportunity that they may have, is never enough to not be in some sort of hock to some sort of entity, forever, for those that have little financial strength, therefore have little maneuverability, and those that can't pay the bills are never going to boss around those that make those bills.
The fact that three individuals in America, have as reported by cnbc.com, "… collectively more wealth than the 160 million poorest Americans…", can only really sensibly mean this basic thing, that the mass of mankind has little or nothing of substance or sustainability to stand upon, with no one to champion their cause, because in order for that sort of extreme wealth disparity to actually happen, this can only be because millions of people are exploited day in and day out, and that the institutions that are currently in place, are inherently biased against the mass of people, so as to favor the very few, the connected, and all those that ingratiate themselves to them, at the expense of the 160 million poorest Americans, who are seen as a resource to be ruthlessly plundered and exploited, so as to keep them weak and helpless, so that they will not raise their hands, nor their heads, to revolt.