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A Big-Mouthed Politically-Incorrect Blog About the UK... ...it may be crap, but at least it's genuine crap! |
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A Big-Mouthed Politically-Incorrect Blog About the UK... ...it may be crap, but at least it's genuine crap! |
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About Contact Links Caveat The DR Manifesto...Manifesto I'm not standing for office. I'd be a shite politician, partly because I'm unpleasantly honest and partly because I hate wearing suits... If I wasn't, this is what I'd be campaigning on... (26 Feb 2007) 'Please let my Mother live!'...Environment There's only one way to ensure our survival as a species - live sustainably. It's easy! Nuclear Idiocy (15 January 2007) Sustainability (16 October 2006) Global Warming (15 October 2006) Housing Shortage (15 October 2006) Cycle Paths (11 October 2006) Tourism (10 October 2006) Main Topics...Make Drugs Legal Prohibition doesn't work, duh! It gives too much money to organised crime... Updated: Letter to the Telegraph 'Alcohol and Tobacco are the gateway drugs - if there is such a thing...' (Upd: 11 Mar 2006) Errant Fathers How can fathers be expected to 'take responsibility' for their kids when the law always presumes in favour of the mother? I got a reply - and here's my reply to that Welfare and Compensation Culture = No Legal Responsibility (Upd: 11 Mar 2007) A New Political System A solution for: Party Funding, Reform of The House Of Lords, and it incidentally makes the whole voting process far more democratic... (Upd: 25 Feb 2007) Principles My principles of government. (Upd: 25 Feb 2007) Road Pricing Tony Blair and the entire Labour Government are cretins... Road pricing has to be the most hare-brained scheme ever - devised by the evil cretinous muppets from hell - the Politicians... (19 Feb 2007) Old People Old folks have no respect in our culture. That is so wrong!... (18 Feb 2007) Poverty How do we define poverty? How do we reduce it? Well, not taxing the poor would help... (18 Feb 2007) Europe The EU is a criminal organisation intent on conquest... (Upd: 30 January 2007) Cash for Honours Why would anyone give money to a political party?.. (16 January 2006) Social Security A fresh approach to the problem of how to provide social security... (15 January 2006) David Cameron David Cameron and the Conservative Party... (12 December 2006) Random Rants Some random musings... (12 November 2006) Prisons If prisoners are 'paying their debt to society' - why is is so damn expensive to keep them? (21 October 2006) Tax Taxes kill businesses and people. (16 October 2006) Free Speech Some peoples brains work overtime trying to figure out how to turn opinions into insults... (14 October 2006) Health Why are tax-payers footing the bill for sex-change operations and IVF? (13 October 2006) Law British law is stupidly complex and inefficient. You'd never design a system like that... (13 October 2006) Education Educators need to aim higher, and politicians need to butt-out. (12 October 2006) Security It was a no-brainer that invading Iraq with Bush would cause more grievances than it solved. When has starting a war ever brought peace? (8 October 2006) |
Poverty18 Feb 2007 
A Definition of PovertyI thought I had a really good way to define 'poor', but then I did some research and decided there are a few different measures of poverty which can be useful, and the one we use at the moment is the least useful... Poverty = The Inability to get (pay for) the BASICSThe basics are (of course):
The most important of these in many ways is shelter - i.e. to have a home you can call your own... It's the first step towards becoming a real part of the society you live in. If you don't own a property, you haven't 'bought into' this world... Most of the poorest people in the world, are poor simply because they don't own their own land on which to live. Nowhere to grow their own food... Official Definitions of Poverty......Only, after doing some research, I find this is the old definition, whereas those super-clever 'academic' type-chappies have a much better one... (From BBC) The widely accepted definition of poverty is having an income which is less than 60% of the national average (excluding the wealthiest members of society). On this measure, the proportion of the UK population defined as in poverty is roughly one in five. What sort of a stupid measure of poverty is that? It doesn't tell you anything except some random statistic about the distribution of wealth in the country... For example, if the average was £50k, people getting under £30k would be officially 'poor'. Even if the basics only cost £1k a year. Seebohm Rowntree, member of the famous confectionery family, studied the conditions of the working class in York at the end of the nineteenth century, he took a simplistic approach. "He decided upon a shopping basket of food, housing and some items of clothing. These were considered the basics of life. "Anyone who could not afford this basket of goods was deemed to be in poverty," Professor Jonathan Bradshaw of the University of York told BBC News. Seems a much better measure to me, but this is why it changed... "By 1950 poverty, as defined by a basket of basic goods, had virtually disappeared. Employment - the lack of which had led to a rise in poverty in the 1930s - had returned and the welfare state was having a major impact," Professor John Hills of the London School of Economics, told BBC News. Back in the 1960's - 50% of people lived on half the average income. These days it's 60%. Bring back the old stats!How many people struggle to pay for the basics these days? I know quite a few... I think it'd be useful to have the old absolute measure of poverty back... How many people today can't afford the basics??? I bet it's a lot. In fact - if you were to define 'poverty' as never being able to afford your own house - then that now applies to about half the population! My Definition of 'Poverty' For The UKPoverty = Not being able to afford your own homeI have solutions to the housing problem. Vote for me! I ain't kissing your ugly baby though! Stop Taxing The Poor!A Flat-Rate Tax System - where you pay no tax if your income is below £18k (Minimum) - would be the best starting point for eradicating poverty in the UK. People are poor because they have no money - how can taxing them help? No-one Should Go Without The BasicsThere should be a real welfare state - in the form of residential community centers - where anyone can live permanently in exchange for a few hours work, or some money. I have a vision - the country full of communal centers with pools, gyms, creches, kitchens and more. No homeless people. No lonely single-parent families with no support. No old folk at the mercy of at best overworked and jaded carers (at worst - criminal)... Please see the pages about: CommentsThis is a sporadically moderated blog. I am not responsible for anything below! There are no comments for this page. To add your own comments, click here to login or register |
