Poverty is largely a consequence of European modes of living, especially their approach to private property. Perhaps the best account of this now is the new book The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Certainly it is the best account I have ever come across and the best history/philosophy book I’ve ever read without exception.
As the Europeans spread out and exported their worldview, they spread poverty around the world by expropriating all the land and resources that once made every human rich and they concentrated them in the hands of a few sociopaths with delusions of grandeur. Any resistance was met with brutal violence, resulting in numerous genocides and the enslavement of millions of people.
Another useful resource is David Spencer’s book on work. There is a fantastic little summary of the main point re poverty in this short article:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170108123038/http://www.pieria.co.uk/articles/mercantilism_six_centuries_of_vilifying_the_poor