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Poverty [message #54901]

Tue, 02 December 2008 12:50

timmy

Has no life at all

Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13818

Acam has raised something that I struggle with regarding poverty. I agree at an emotional level that no child should be born into or raised in poverty. Yet precisely how possible is it to eliminate poverty? Intellectually I find it a challenge to understand.

Let me explain.

I am comfortable for money. I am comfortable because I can afford food, clothes, housing, health etc. I have had some luck, and mostly I have worked hard to achieve this state.

Most people in poverty work hard, too. Mostly the have different skills from mine. I buy goods created by people in poverty when I buy clothes. Their skills are valued lower than mine and clothing for me is cheap because they are paid little.

If their skills were valued at the same level as mine, clothes would cost me more. I would buy fewer, because I could afford fewer.

Since there are many people like me, the clothing business would start to fail because we are buying fewer clothes. The "better paid" clothing workers would lose their jobs and descend again into poverty.

So how can we eliminate poverty?

I know my example is simplistic, but show me where it is incorrect, please. Surely poverty is necessary for commerce to function?

[Updated on: Thu, 04 December 2008 07:47]

Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School

		Poverty By: timmy on Tue, 02 December 2008 12:50
		Re: Poverty By: acam on Tue, 02 December 2008 22:15
		Re: Poverty By: saben on Tue, 02 December 2008 23:01
		Re: Poverty By: timmy on Wed, 03 December 2008 00:25
		Make Poverty History - Support Free Trade By: saben on Wed, 03 December 2008 06:12
		Re: Make Poverty History - Support Free Trade By: paulj on Wed, 03 December 2008 12:11
		Re: Poverty By: NW on Tue, 02 December 2008 22:45
		Re: Poverty By: saben on Tue, 02 December 2008 22:57
		Re: Poverty By: Nigel on Wed, 03 December 2008 09:18
		Re: Poverty By: timmy on Wed, 03 December 2008 10:47
		Re: Poverty By: james on Wed, 03 December 2008 19:12
		Re: Poverty By: acam on Wed, 03 December 2008 21:29
		Re: Poverty By: james on Thu, 04 December 2008 23:54
		Re: Poverty By: Macky on Wed, 03 December 2008 22:13
		Re: Poverty By: timmy on Thu, 04 December 2008 00:18
		Re: Poverty By: Macky on Thu, 04 December 2008 01:36
		Re: Poverty By: NW on Thu, 04 December 2008 02:06
		Re: Poverty By: Macky on Thu, 04 December 2008 03:27
		Evolution By: acam on Thu, 04 December 2008 11:34
		Re: Evolution By: NW on Thu, 04 December 2008 12:37
		Re: Evolution By: Macky on Thu, 04 December 2008 14:26
		Re: Evolution By: acam on Thu, 04 December 2008 15:42
		Re: Evolution By: Macky on Thu, 04 December 2008 16:28
		Ah, but perhaps intelligence is an evolutionary dead end! By: timmy on Thu, 04 December 2008 07:15
		Re: Ah, but perhaps intelligence is an evolutionary dead end! By: NW on Thu, 04 December 2008 11:16

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