Poverty in Britain?
Previously I wrote about the hollowing out of middle America. Today we talk about poverty in Britain.
DW Documentary Channel has put out a documentary titled Poverty in Britain. Deutsche Welle (DW) is Germany's international left-wing broadcaster and part of the LeLi cabal.
Britain has a historically low unemployment rate of 3.6%. Yet poverty levels are breaking all records. It’s a paradoxical situation: almost 15 million Britons are considered poor these days, although there’s almost full employment. The reason: inflation and high energy costs.
Galloping inflation and a dramatic spike in energy costs in recent months are forcing millions of Britons into poverty. Wages fluctuate in an "uberized” working world of precarious employment conditions. Over the past 10 years, beginning with David Cameron, the government has scaled back its support to vulnerable members of society. The result: reduced life expectancy. Disadvantaged Britons are dying 10 years sooner than their wealthier compatriots - victims of what’s become known as the "shit life syndrome” - a life marked by poor living conditions, disease and addiction.
The documentary profiles people who have a job but can still afford nothing - from Blackpool in the west, to Ashton-under-Lyne and Cumbria, on the border with Scotland.
So what are the reasons for this poverty?
In 2009, I wrote an ebook titled Future without Poverty, explaining the Snakes and Ladders model of poverty. That still holds. But what is worrying is that the US and developed European countries are creating Structural Poverty. “Treadmill effect” is being built right now.
In addition, there are some essential things to understand:
Jobs don’t pay the rent: One critical problem facing the US and developed world is that most middle and low-income jobs do not cover living expenses. I do not mean fancy living. I mean the incomes do not cover rent, food, school and basic health care. This is a BIG problem that needs a proper debate.
The government broke the promise to the public: Free healthcare and a large benefit state, high, inflation-shielded pensions were promised during the hey-days of the post-WWII boom. Those promises were too good to be true. Well, initially, they were reasonable, but when you are busy promising something too far out in the future, most tend to exaggerate. Governments overpromised. They could not possibly deliver on those. The Conservative Party merely acknowledged that in the UK. The same goes for Republicans in the US.
Government promises depleted savings: If there is one truth, it is that - those who save always benefit in bad times. This has been so for eternity and will be so forever. We even have stories of Ants and Grasshoppers. There are many Grasshoppers and not many ants. As a rule, you must be able to save 25% of your take-home salary no matter what government takes away.
We desperately need innovation: Some people innovate by providing free meals, shelters, subsidised transport etc. The next stage is to build business models around these. I recommend Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid as a starting point. I would say think of Telemedicine to augment the need for medical care.
Stop useless spending: The government should direct the money and aid from NGOs and Aid programs to deploy in these towns and areas. For instance, till 2015, the UK sent billions of GBP “AID” to India to finance religious conversions. I am sure if these countries looked around, that money would be better off financing aid to their own poor. I think it is unreasonable that today aid to Ukraine takes precedence over their own poor.
In Sum
Poverty is complicated. If you want to solve poverty, you need to build “ladders”. It means giving people opportunities to find work that can pay for living expenses. What I can say for sure is that Modern Monetary Theory or some such Leftist gimmick won’t work. We need a solution that takes us back to the values.
Link to video updated 11 June 2024