Conspicuously poor?
January 28th, 2012 by Katherine Trebeck Posted in Attitudes, Fairness, Inequality, Wellbeing | 5 Comments »In a society in which we often judge each other by superficial appearances, it seems individuals are denied empathy or support as ‘poor’ if they are still able to take care of their appearance.
A friend of mine who has lived in poverty for some time – and is an angry, energetic activist – tells of an interview she did with a journalist about her experience of fuel poverty and the choices she has to make living on the breadline.
At [...] Continue Reading…
It’s the inequality, stupid
January 27th, 2012 by Katherine Trebeck Posted in Attitudes, Citizen's income, Corporate Social Responsibility, Inequality | 5 Comments »We know so much about the growing inequality in the UK.
We know that it is getting worse – in Scotland, for example, two fifths of the increase in income during the last decade has gone to the richest 10% of the population).
We know that it is worse than most other European countries – the UK is up there with Greece, Bulgaria and Lithuania.
Many of us know that now the greatest inequality seems to be not between those in work [...] Continue Reading…
Whose welfare state is it anyway?
January 25th, 2012 by Kenny McBride Posted in Benefits, Citizen's income, Corporate Social Responsibility, Fairness, Inequality, Livelihoods | 1 Comment »As the American presidential primary season gets underway, Ron Paul has received a great deal of attention for his libertarian approach to economics. In short, libertarian capitalism argues that any form of state intervention in economic matters distorts market forces and thus reduces efficiency, making everyone poorer than they should be. In the libertarian utopia, the wealthy are freed from governmental regulation, taxes and interest rates, thus enabling them to make wholly rational decisions about investments, thus maximising the growth [...] Continue Reading…
Ignoring Britain’s poor is not only morally bad, it’s economically unsound
January 19th, 2012 by Ben Morgan Posted in Citizen's income, Inequality, Labour rights, Livelihoods, Robin Hood Tax, Unemployment, Welfare reform | No Comments »This post first appeared on Open Democracy.
Chill winds are sweeping Britain’s economy with a general expectation that poverty will increase in the coming years, and that poverty reduction targets will be missed. Alarm bells rang loudly after hints that the Government is considering changing the way it measures poverty. They wouldn’t just do this because unmet targets are embarrassing. Difficult times mean that politics in Britain has primarily become an exercise in allocating pain, not spreading butter. It may [...] Continue Reading…
Either we’re at war or all in it together – not both
January 16th, 2012 by Katherine Trebeck Posted in Corporate Social Responsibility, Fairness, Labour rights, Unemployment, Wellbeing | 4 Comments »Our Prime Minister has kicked off 2012 by announcing a pledge to half the amount of red-tape and calling health and safety laws a ‘monster’. This is part of a promise he made last year to wage ‘war’ on the enemies of enterprise. Hardly appropriate language, in that he is implicitly equating bureaucrats with other targets of government ‘wars’ – terrorists and drug dealers.
The reason why this language jars so badly is that there seems to be an assumption [...] Continue Reading…
New video by the Fair Pay Network – please share!
December 14th, 2011 by Joana Martinho Posted in Citizen's income, Fairness, Labour rights, Livelihoods | No Comments »Take a look at the new Fair Pay Network video on in-work poverty, presented by Tony Robinson.
Ed Miliband, Caroline Lucas and Polly Toynbee make the case for companies to start paying all employees a living wage.
Please share (and @FairPayNetwork if on Twitter)!
The Fair Pay Network is a national coalition dedicated to leading the fight against low-paid work and in-work poverty, of which Oxfam is part of.
