Power To The Dogs

The United Kingdom is statistically the 20th richest country on the planet yet a staggering 13 million people - that’s 1 in 4 - live in poverty. Recent findings show that roughly 6.5 million adults do not possess essential clothing because of lack of funds; surely, in the 20th century, this is unacceptable? Apparently not as 10.5 million people living in the U.K. live in financial insecurity, with no disposable income and no money to even insure what little possessions they do have.

In this so called “rich” country, 18% of children go without basic necessities such as sufficient clothing or even three meals a day; surely these are things that any Briton can expect from living in the same country as the Queen of England? However, this of course brings in the question of absolute and relative poverty. Can any of us living in the United Kingdom really be classed as living in “absolute poverty”? To say that you live in absolute poverty, you are saying that you do not have the basics that are required for survival such as food, clothing and shelter.

The government argues that, in this day and age, no one in Britain lives in absolute poverty, not with homeless shelters and the benefit system and the like. However, even with these systems in place, down every alleyway and on most high streets, a homeless person will be lying, begging for money. Or there may be someone selling “The Big Issue”. Either way, are these people really living in absolute poverty? Are they really comparable to someone starving in Ethiopia? Surely not.

Of course, living in poverty isn’t just confined to people living on the streets. Relative poverty is when you are poor compared to the people living around you. Relative poverty could even be a middle class doctor living in Kensington or Chelsea; it all depends who lives in your community.

Regardless of whether a person is living in absolute or relative poverty, living in poverty has effects which run much deeper than not having money or possessions. Many studies have shown that those living in poverty have worse education, health and a poorer life expectancy. Also, employment prospects of children who come from families with low incomes are much lower than those born to parents who are better off.

Poverty can leave people feeling powerless as they have no say in the decisions that affect their life. It can mean being treated as a second class citizen by the rest of society.

Charities such as Oxfam and the Salvation Army have been trying for many use to make a difference in the lives of those living in poverty, but with still so many people begging and living on the streets, are they really making that much of a difference? Though we may like to think that if we give £1 to one of these charities, each and every penny will go to help those less fortunate, but that simply isn’t true. Before the money is used to help people in poverty, it’s used for things such as wages and/or transport for those involved.

Poverty is awful; it is degrading, embarrassing and humiliating. In the second decade of the twenty first century, poverty shouldn’t even be a word that we use to describe British citizens. But it is and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.