why does the poor get poorer?

Well there's a lot of variety of reasons behind that, Perhaps it's because of the economy of the country where the poor people are living. Economy has really something to do with these. Also, the way of living of poor people, if they really don't actually move and just waiting for nothing, they would definitely be poorer and poorer and no chance for them to get a good life. Education is one big reason also, many of poor people are not really educated, they can't even afford to get into school to learn basic lessons, to write, read and communicate. There's a lot of people who haven't a chance to get into Highschool after they graduated in Elementary and even in elementary they don't have a diploma. I believe that Education is very important, because you cannot get a good job if you are not actually graduated even in HighSchool.

Humm I think it most of the time you right but not always. There are some poor people who grew up in a very poor family but later they got rich! for example you can look of Oprah Winfrey that was really poor when she was young but now she is one of the richest ladies in the world. But it is true that most times the poor people get poorer and it is because many countries doesn't care of them! The governments don't help enough for those families who ned their help. Also, those who don't have enpugh money can't get the education that rich people get! They can't learn in good universities etc.. All this free economy hurts the poor people and makes them poorer while the rich get richer! Unfortunately this is our reality nowadays.