Poverty is not a choice. To live in poverty is to live under the minimum standards of living set out by the government. I don't think anyone would just choose to live in such a manner. Slipping into poverty can happen by making a series of bad choices or just one bad choice. Some times people end up in poverty by events that they couldn't even help. It can happen from getting an illness and the medical bills becoming too overwhelming. Times can get hard and people get laid off of work. It's also possible to born into poverty. So no, I don't think poverty is a choice. There are people who live miserably in poverty and others that live happily and try to work their way out of it. Ending up in poverty is not a choice, but choosing to stay there without trying to do better is.
In the book All Souls the MacDonald family lives in poverty, but they don't let that define them. They live the life they choose to with whatever they have. They didn't make the choice to live in poverty certain circumstances lead them there. they did however make the choice not to live in misery. So I say again that poverty is not a choice, but how you handle it is.
