In this article I will talk about my theory about what causes suffering in our world. First of all, all humans have necessities. So far I have identified following necessities:
Humans have to satisfy these needs, otherwise they will feel unhappy. But the ways a human can satisfy his need can be completely different. A human can satisfy his need in a natural, harmless way or in an unnatural, harmful way. Simple example: if a human needs to eat or drink, he can go to a store and buy food and water. But if he lacks money to buy that, he might steal that. Stealing is harmful, it makes work of other people wasted and unrewarded. Now I will go in more detail about this in each necessity category.
For the human body to maintain health, it requires certain substances at certain quantities. Moreover, in different climates the quantities may vary. The body needs proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, micronutrients and water. For this, there exist various plants and animals. People cultivate plants and farm animals for food. Then they prepare and cook food in different ways and combinations so it is safe and pleasant for consumption. But there are some problems related to this. One is unbalanced diet which can be caused by absence of access to necessary food, not enough money to buy it, or preference to consume some foods more than the other for pleasure. So some people, especially with very low income, can steal food from others or from stores, which is crime.
Another bad thing is when people eat or drink mostly to receive pleasure. This factor has been exploited by other people who invented various kinds of drinks, refined, unnatural and fast food to make income. Alcoholic and sugary drinks, sugary, fat and salty foods are now mass-produced due to how much profit they can generate from consumers. All this production also is packaged in plastics. Such food industry causes imbalance and pollution in environment, and many illnesses. Also, excessive expansion of farms cause deforestation and decrease of some animal populations.
Majority of people need a home for resting, sleeping, security, posession storage and other activities. Some people want to have a spacious, luxurios apartments or houses. Sometimes companies deceive people into buying or renting flawed property, or just fraud them.
Humans need clothes for body protection and temperature regulation. Clothes also have to cover certain (sex-specific) parts of the body. Some people use clothes for style or fashion, which is exploited by companies who produce expensive clothes and accessories. Dressing pretty is good in moderation, but this can be manipulated by fashion industry. Differences in clothing also can cause condemnation or mocking.
Some people have a need to create, be it paintings, music, architecture or else. Other people like to consume this art.
Every human needs love from his parents. If parents don't love their child, it grows up unhappy and can develop cold character or mental illnesses. Lack of love can drive a person to seek pleasure in unnatural ways, like mental or physical violence towards other people, alcohol, drugs.
After a person becomes an adult, he soon feels the need in romantic love. For most people, this can be resolved by finding a partner of opposite sex that shares similar worldview and lifestyle. But due to some factors like upbringing, income, religion many people fail to maintain relationship and make it thrive, causing a lot of suffering. Need in romantic love is exploited by people who want to make money on single people - they form dating agencies and create dating apps, which for the most cases don't work.
Humans, like all animals, have a need to reproduce. Men feel the need in sex more than women and women get less pleasure from sex, though. Unsatisfied sexual desire can lead to watching porn, masturbation, and in some cases, rape. It is less effort to go rape a woman than engage in sex by mutual agreement. Raped women get psychological trauma, and often get afraid of most men afterwards or hate them. Desire for sex is being exploited by others for profit in the form of erotic media and porn.
All humans need some physical activity to stay healthy. Lack of that can cause weakness and illnesses. Unfortunately, some illnesses and disabilities can decrease the ability to exercise.
When a human has free time, he often feels like spending that time in a fun way. Consequently, humans invented games, movies, literature, shows and so on. Entertainment industry has a lot of money. If a human donesn't have fun activities, it makes him sad.
For happiness, majority of people need a company of other people. And most people need friends. A lonely person can feel very sad.
Most people believe in supernatural forces and life after death. Many religions claim that they are the only true ones, so it causes tensions between people of different religions. Some people can be so intolerant of others that they want to force their beliefs upon them or make them suffer. This has caused many wars in human history. It would be much better if people were tolerant to other religions and tried to deduce the truth together.
Lots of people like to accumulate lot of money, even when they don't need it. Money is needed to satisfy necessities, but they oftenly spend it on unnecessary things and activites, like gambling, expensive goods like vehicles, big houses, luxuries. Another example of greed is when people don't want to give stuff they don't need or can't use to other people, like excess food.
In the search of pleasure, some people find satisfaction in using chemical substances like alcohol and drugs. These substances can cause damage to body and mind and endanger other people. But as in all cases, this is a lucrative opportunity to get money by hooking people on these substances and getting their money.
Due to harmful lifestyle, or injuries, or bad ecology, or phychological traumas humans can get various diseases. Sometimes this is exploited by companies who treat diseases.
From all this we can see that suffering in the world is mainly caused by unsatisfied human needs or wrong ways of their satisfaction. People should analyze the situation and stop wrong satisfaction of needs by learning what they really need and satisfy that in a correct way.