> hiya beth!
> i would say, off the top of my head, that in England there is an
> element of that, in a Thatcherite mould; but that the main paradigm is
> still a more fatalistic "there must always be poor people" and you cannot
> do anything about it. In fact, one might argue that that is what lies
> behind the whole farce of monetarist economics.
> cheers
> john arnold
>
Being an American now living in England, I would second this. I think
it's a problem in both countries, though here it has more to do with
the old class system, and a holdover from Victorian days, and
Scrooge's "surplus population" theory.
No doubt it has always existed here, but I can easily see the same
attitude being expressed in medieval England, especially within a
feudal system. And remember the concept of the "great chain of
being", which placed everyone in a definite social order, with the
sovereign and Church being the highest representatives of God's will
on earth.
The peasants and beggers, must therefore have been in their
positions also because of God's will.
Tim Rayborn
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