Opinion-Poverty
Owen Jones
Guardian columnist
Tue 1 Dec 2020 15.24 GMT
As hardship surges across Britain, Labour must point to the need for a new social settlement
The existence of poverty in a wealthy nation with the resources to overcome it is not simply an injustice: it is a social crime. It is a political choice, as evidenced by countries where poverty rates are lower because they take conscious decisions to build strong welfare states, support powerful trade unions and encourage progressive taxation.
Poverty subjects human beings to tedium and boredom by restricting their freedoms. It leads to the constant, exhausting intrusions of anxiety provoked by an unopened gas bill on the kitchen table or the costs of an unexpected school trip. Some will find that they have been denied the satisfaction of one of the most basic human needs – to eat – and will join the hundreds of thousands driven to food banks.
In a consumer society that defines our worth by what we own and wear, children are judged, stigmatised and bullied for not having the right clothes or gadgets. It limits the possibilities of friendship: the young who can’t invite schoolmates home because their parents can’t afford to feed them. Poverty holds back educational attainment, suppressing the talent and potential of the young – an act of vandalism not only on their future, but on their country’s future too. For adults, the claim that anyone can make it, with a little talent and a lot of hard work, shames those who struggle financially. There are the missed trips to the pub, for fear of having to buy a round they cannot afford.
