Paul Spicker suggests that child poverty is measured in relation to median
income. However, I think perceptions of relative incomes are not constructed
in terms of medians or arithmetic means but rather in relation to a set of
ordered categories - not the same thing as individual incomes ordered so as
to extract a median. This means that the character of the categories matter,
both in terms of perception and in terms of the impact on social structure.
Sure, liberal conceptions of poverty are constructed, even in relative
terms, by notions of resource level relative to adjacent groups but the
whole social structure of postindustrial societies is distorted by very high
post tax incomes and that certainly has an impact on life chances. As that
noted radical Adam Smith once remarked (and certainly I think you could set
up a sustainable power unit to supply Kirkaldy by wiring him up as he is
certain to be revolving in his grave at the notion that pure free market
hacks have appropriated his name for their think tank) : 'The affluence of
the rich supposes the indigence of the many.'.
David Byrne
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