Budget stuff
Can anyone tell me what on earth relative poverty is, and why, for the love of god, it matters?
If, by some strange occurrence, the entire country become trillionaires overnight (while the rest of the world remains static), and we are all living in big gold houses and driving rocket cars* ~ does the fact that the kid in the next street has a big silver house, and a slightly less powerful rocket car mean they are living in relative poverty?
Or are they referring to my fat aunt who spent her ample inheritance on cream cakes and now sits at home penniless washing herself with a stick?**
Being concerned about absolute poverty is one thing, but can we drop these socialist, redistribtive relative terms, please?
* 10 points to the first person to name the correct Simpsons episode.
** this isn’t a real person, obviously.
Filed under: Liberal lefty nonsense
It’s just one of those we-can-move-the-goalposts-whenever-we-like terms that helps the government make it look like they’re doing something useful.
Wouldn’t your aunt be thin again by now?
Relative poverty means, that the advance of the species towards greater qualiy of life, has happened in an unequal way.
Yes it does matter, because it affects perception, and it creates socvial tension, which ultimately weakens the necessary human co-operation needed to sustain progress.
If progress benefits all, ALL push harder for it.
It makes more sense
“If progress benefits all, ALL push harder for it.”
No, because you’re giving the fruits of the labour of more productive individuals to less productive individuals. This doesn’t create incentives for individuals to work harder because the productive workers don’t get to keep the fruits of their labour, and the unproductive workers get the fruits whether they work harder or not.
Sorry to drag the comments away from Marxism:
“She of little faith”
(David told me what happened in the episode and I googled all the key words)
[...] Nation of Shopkeepers discusses Simpsons & Marxism [...]