Is poverty a choice?

Poverty is something most people don't want to experience in their lives. Poverty carries a negative stigma with it: poor people are often portrayed as lazy, welfare-hogging moochers. If it is not a choice, it is portrayed as a hopeless situation, where nothingncan be done to change it. Even then, people may choose to be poor, if they are already poor, choose to not to do anything about it, or resign themselves to their fate. Those who choose to be poor may do it out of humility or due to their religion, like the followers of Buddha in Siddharta or monks. Others may choose poverty due to their refusal to work.