Socialists always punish successful people and reward unsuccessful people. They call this social justice. Which is a huge lie because it is anything but just. And it is a big reason why every Labour government ever has trashed the British economy and why any future Labour government would do it again.
Let’s look at the two kinds of poverty.
Firstly there is absolute poverty. 1.1bn of the 7bn people on planet earth suffer from this. It is defined has having an income of less than $1.25 per day. It means usually going to bed hungry and not being able to provide the basics of existence for a family. There is none of this in Great Britain.
Secondly there is relative poverty. In Britain this means only having a 40 inch television and only having an iPhone 5. In reality it means having a better lifestyle than a doctor or lawyer had 60 years ago. Anyone who watches the various “benefits” related TV series will know this.
When lefties spout on TV about the number of people in poverty in Britain going up or going down it sounds like serious stuff. But it isn’t. You are being deceived. Because the definition of poverty in Britain is having a household income 60% or less than the national median income. In other words poverty in Britain is actually being quite rich. And remember that the statistics only cover formal economy income, so informal economy income is making these “poor” people richer still. The last time we had real poverty in Britain was after WW2 when Clement Attlee starved the British people for six and a half years, whilst there was plenty of food available.
This measure of poverty means that if everyone is a millionaire, but some have more millions than others, then we would be calling millionaires poor. It is ridiculous. During Gordon Brown’s recession the economy retracted by 7%. The brunt of the effect of this was taken by rich people, whilst “poor” people on fixed benefits were hardly affected at all. This meant that because the official poverty figure is based on a median and there were less rich people, statistically there were also far less poor people, yet their income had not increased. Once you understand this you will treat UK poverty figures with utter contempt.
When it comes to real, absolute poverty capitalism and world trade are the only solution. We have seen the amazing results that they have achieved in Asia and are now starting to achieve in Africa.  From 1990 to 2010, the number in poverty fell 50% as a share of the total population in developing countries, from 43% to 21%, a fantastic achievement, most of which came from adopting Thatcherite economics.
When it comes to “poverty” in Britain there are a couple of ways to reduce it. The first is to fix our execrable education system. 40% of school leavers are innumerate and 20% functionally illiterate. So a very high number are totally unfit for the labour market. Our lefty teachers and their “progressive” education methods are largely to blame. The second is to reward strivers and not to reward shirkers. The exact opposite to what Labour do. So people who work and achieve must not be punished and the feckless workshy underclass must be forced into work. The Conservatives in government have made huge advances in fixing education, but there is a vast amount more to do. Ian Duncan Smith and George Osborne have made great strides in getting people back to work by making it a better option than benefits. But you know that any Labour government would undo all these fantastic achievements.
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Anyone need a village idiot? Bruce is available at very short notice.
Next article is about how to simplify time travel. I can’t wait
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Hi Poor just die till capitalism kicks in
See how, like most lefties, you fail on the pyramid of intellect:
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Nice pyramid 🙂
Whilst the tone of the article can be perceived as aggressive – the central point is quite accurate – our ‘first world’ poverty is very different to ‘third world poverty’.
The move to energise and motivate people into work should be applauded and that’s my biggest concern with a change of Government. It’s far to easy to say ‘there are no jobs’ – when the actual excuse should be ‘I don’t want to do any of those jobs’. Sadly, everybody has to start somewhere.
I much preferred the benefits approach of Austria – IIRC if you lose your job, you receive 70% of your income for a set-period, this then drops to 50% for another period (in total around 9 months) – if you have not found work after that, the Govt will employ you and benefits cease.
The tax is around 44% – so slightly more aggressive than the UK – but everything is clean, kept in good condition and works. The inhabitants are also well educated and productive. I would love to see a switch to this model.
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I’d be interested to hear you tell a person who’s working all hours on two low-paid jobs and still needs benefits to make ends meet how there’s no poverty in Britain. Not everyone who’s on benefits is a work-shy scrounger. Not everyone forced to use food banks is unemployed. And if a poor person owns a 40-inch TV or an iPhone 5 they probably bought it while in work.
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I agree, I’ve seen those foodbank users (foodies) turning up in their government funded Porsches using their diamante encrusted iPhone 9s too. Bloody disgrace the lot of them. Too good to be horse whipped, their kind.
Poverty only exists if the person is a) brown b ) living in a mud hut c) been in a documentary with Joanna Lumley.
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No capitalism rewards failure. Rich bosses whos companies fail get massive pay offs.
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and stop using the overly simplistic term “lefties” .. if you’ll pardon the “name calling”, it’s Rather Silly to group a bunch of people into one generic mass that you don’t like, label them lefties, and then blaming them for everything that’s wrong with everything.
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http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/01/22/what-game-thieves-have-to-say-for-themselves/#comments
Bruce’s opinionsasfacts go down well here too
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Perhaps you could tell Jack Monroe there’s no poverty in Britain?
http://agirlcalledjack.com/2015/02/19/i-cant-even-open-my-own-front-door/
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So, let’s talk about poverty in Britain firstly. When you say there is no absolute poverty I am surprised that you’d make such a claim in good faith. I don’t want to spam links on here because it’s rude, but if you take some time to examine the number of people who use foodbanks, who are malnourished, who are in fuel poverty etc, you’ll see that it’s a pretty substantial phenomenon – and pretty disgraceful for a society with such enormous wealth.
Regarding the ‘cure for poverty’ being capitalism and free enterprise. Firstly, and this is an important observation deserving of a full essay, capitalism and free enterprise are not the same thing. Worker co-ops, not for profit savings and loans institutions and community asset sharing are all examples of free enterprise outside of capitalism. Secondly, most countries, including Britain, that have successfully created an industrial economy have done so through industrial policy. Britain had its government sponsored textile industry, Japan had its war economy, Korea its Chaebol, and now China has its state run financial system. I’m a big fan of free enterprise in the academic sense because I’m generally a fan of liberty, but one has to recognise the very real role played by the state in generating prosperity.
Lastly, even if we take your premise of the conservatives having successfully coerced more people to enter the labour force as true (and according to folks I trust who look at labour markets and my own experience, this ain’t the case), then why would this be a good thing? Given the UK’s falling productivity and lousy private sector investment, why do we believe that expanding the labour force is going to do much to help the economy?