Monday, 17 October 2016

Mired In Poverty, While Surrounded By Wealth.


          This prosperous country, 6th richest country in the world, seems to be riddled with anomalies, however, anomalies consistent with any capitalist country. Who creates the wealth? Where is the wealth? Well we all know who creates the wealth, you and me, the ordinary people of the country. From the manufacturing, distribution, administration and consumption, it is us that create all the wealth. Where is the wealth, well let’s look at income. 
        Inequality is much higher amongst original income than net income with the poorest 10% having on average an original income of £4,467 whilst the top 10% have an original income 24 times larger (£107,597)1. the top 1% had an average income of £253,927 and the top 0.1% had an average income of £919,8823. The poorest fifth of society have only 8% of the total income, whereas the top fifth have 40%.
         That’s just income, what about where we live. Well we all know what sort of mansions the top 10% live in, what about the rest of us? Recent research has found facts that are shocking for a rich country, but don’t shock us. We know that this is the way that the system works. A very large proportion of ordinary people of this country are living in unacceptable conditions.
       Britons were asked if their homes met a series of conditions which together make up what Shelter has dubbed the “Living Home Standard”, and 43 per cent said their home failed the test.
And: 
        Nearly one in five homes failed the Living Home Standard based on a lack of decent conditions. Some didn’t have running hot and cold water, others were not structurally sound, and many had serious pest infestations or issues with mould and damp.
      The research, conducted by Ipsos Mori, found more than one in four of the nearly 2,000 surveyed said their homes failed basic standards of affordability. In these cases, people had to cut back on essentials like food and heating just to pay their rent or mortgage, or they were worried those payments could rise to a level they would no longer be able to afford.
        What is it that we are continually told by that millionaire cabal that reside in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption? “We have the fastest growing economy in the developed world” Well where is all that growth going? Large swaths of the ordinary people of this country have for generations had low incomes and lived in inadequate housing, and will continue to do so for generations to come, unless we do something about it by changing the system.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

2 comments:

  1. On a Lost Battle in the Spanish War

    This is defeat of a sort.
    Whoever wins now, these have lost.
    These have seen faces of bad dreams
    Look at them down a leveled gun,
    And nothing has broken the dream nor woken.

    These who died at Badajoz
    Will be dead when men who shot
    Their brothers, Fascists, foreign tools
    Are nothing; when across the world
    The people stand on victory.

    These saw the cities race with flame,
    The friendly streets run blood,
    The walls fall, the ignorant
    Murder the honest, and whatever happens
    They will not see the rest.

    They have no immortality
    But what their dying works in us.
    Blood does not cry to heaven, nor take
    Its own revenge when they are dead.
    By their agony the living learn to fight.

    Margot Heinemann.

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