At 08:09 09/06/2010 +0100, Martin Rathfelder wrote:
>If the problems of poverty in the UK are about relative poverty, why will
>reducing the incomes of the rich not help?
That surely hits the nail on the head. IF the problems were about relative
poverty, then that would, indeed, be the obvious solution.
However, relative poverty (within a country) is really essentially a
political/ psychological issue ('sour grapes'), not a humanitarian one -
e.g.a person who can't afford to feed their children properly feeling
aggrieved because others were in a much better position. Maybe their
psychology would feel a bit better if one changed the situation such that
no-one else could feed their children properly, either, but that's hardly a
solution - and wouldn't result in an improvement in their children's nutrition!
At the most basic level (virtually 'human rights' - access to adequate
food, shelter, healthcare, protection, education etc.), the poverty that
matters is surely absolute, not relative?
Kind Regards,
John
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