Poverty was not only an issue in the Dickens’s time; we still see it today. From 2015, the statistics were: over one billion people living in poverty, with 16 million of them being children. That was 1/7 of the world’s population! Immigrants didn’t have much luck either. One in five immigrants were in poverty at the time. A reason for these stats is because of an unfair division of wealth. The most of the economy in the US is controlled by the wealthiest Americans. Another reason is that poverty is like a weed-- if left unchecked for too long, it is allowed to establish its roots into the ground and is difficult to pull out. Then it becomes so overwhelming that countries cannot afford basic subsistence, such as medical care. It doesn’t help