Poverty cannot be simulated because it fundamentally means lacking power

Evidence

Gandhi always said that he wanted to live like the poorest of the poor. The question is, can poverty be simulated? Poverty, after all, is not just a question of having no money or no possessions. Poverty is about having no power. As a politician, it was Gandhi’s business to accumulate power, which he did effectively. Satyagraha wouldn’t have worked, even as much as it did, if it wasn’t for his star power. If you are powerful, you can live simply, but you cannot be poor. In South Africa, it took a lot of farmland and organic fruit trees to keep Gandhi in poverty. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 233

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 233
• XREF: connects to: An idea is worthless without power to compel its adoption — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 614