quote:

I saw your post where you said you had met people from CM , I hope one of them wasn't NG and he managed to talk you round to his point of view. Just like me he is a bit of a charmer.!

Did he take you for some Fish/Chips wrapped in the Socialist Worker.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lashra

Its the same way here LadyEllen. The "middle class" is being bled dry to line the pockets of the rich and to support the poor. Gas prices are soaring, the housing market is crumbling, wages aren't going up, jobs are being out source, our prisons are filled to capacity, drugs and gangs are running rampant. We are involved in a war that most of us didn't even want involvement in. But there is a silver lining! Our beloved President and Company says its going to be ok and after all, he wouldn't lie to us, would he?

~Lashra

quote:

ORIGINAL: UtopianRanger

quote:

I saw your post where you said you had met people from CM , I hope one of them wasn't NG and he managed to talk you round to his point of view. Just like me he is a bit of a charmer.!
Did he take you for some Fish/Chips wrapped in the Socialist Worker.

This is far-n-away one of the coldest, most loathsome posts you've ever made :  You're trying to tie-together/demean / implicate the Gent's honest socialist/equality ideology with good, old-fashioned English Fish-n-chips.
What gives? 
- R

quote:

ORIGINAL: b12345

The method for computing absolute poverty is misleading.   As a statistic it is still dependent on others incomes and therefore to some degree relitive.  As used in the study it is far different from say the either the old (income) or new (multi-demensional) world bank messures of poverty, (by most international standards I would assume the UK to have a povery rate of <2% maybe even <1%.)

For the purposes of the the annual figures I assume you are refering to: 
-Absolute poverty is defined as being a measure of whether those households on the lowest incomes—less than 60% of the median average income—are seeing their income rise in real terms.

-Relative poverty is a measure of whether those in the lowest income households are keeping pace with the growth in incomes in the economy as a whole.

By most international standards things are not nearly as bad as one would think after reading the recent news over there in the UK.  Until recently most economists and the world bank measured poverty roughly as having income of less then $1US per day.  I doubt many people in the UK certainly not 1 in 5 make less than 185 Pounds a year. 

The study realy is more about an increasing wealth gap.  People talk about the middle class struggling to make ends meet, and the rich getting richer.  IMHO the middle class in countries like the US and UK should take a step back and realize that they are very well off, relitive to the rest of the world or for that matter almost any other period in time.  Even the "poor" in countries like the US and UK have a higher standard of living in many respects than the richest royalty of just a couple centuries ago.  As far as people being over extedned, a acuantance of mine once was a very successful stock broker and made a fair amount of money, and then drank it all away and lost his job.  Then after cleaning up he didn;t make near as much money as before, and complained of being streched thin, and financially unstable, until it occured to him that he could just lower his standard of living and be just as happy.  He moved into a cheaper apartment, got a car that was functional, but no more, stopped buying expensive clothing, didn't eat out, and all of the sudden he had no more financial insecurity, and became much happier.  People in most 1st world nations are not a risk of failing to meet basic needs, unless it is do to there own foolishmess.  Most "middle class" and to a large degree even "poor people's" financial troubles are more or less a result of "trying to keep up with the joneses".   If you are concerned with poverty, most of subsaharan Africa, Parts of central and south america, and inland Asia have lots to be found.  US, UK, most of Western europe, there is increasing welth disparity, but it can hardly be considered  poverty IMHO.

B

quote:

ORIGINAL: seeksfemslave

Good post b12345 and also in the UK massive, and I mean very large, amounts of Welfare are diverted towards encouraging the economically insecure and willfully feckless to "knock out sprogs", ie breed as and when its convenient for them.

Some put this breeding down to lack of Sex Education and hence demand more government expenditure.
I think a sea change to the benefit system is required but every bleeding heart Liberal would be up in arms so I dont think that is very likely.