Do markets create poverty?

Economists would argue that markets do not actually
cause poverty.  Instead, they
allow poverty to occur.  Economists would then argue that
markets allow greater overall wealth to exist in an economy than would exist in a
command economy.

Economists argue that poverty is caused by
various sorts of inequality.  Most typically, these are inequalities in skills.  A
person may become poor because his or her skills are insufficient to allow him/her to
compete in the market.  Alternatively, the person's skills could be a bad match for the
kinds of jobs that are available.

In either case, the
market is not creating the poverty.  The poverty is caused by the person's lack of
skills.  To use a sports analogy, saying the market causes poverty is like saying that
playing a game causes one team to lose.  Playing the game gives a team the chance to
lose, but it is other factors that actually cause the team to
lose.