The business of ending poverty

This is not to make the number higher for effect. It is to ensure no one misses out on help because they are not deemed poor enough to get it. Just using the 50% metric, however, still means more than 3 million Australians in poverty.   

A bigger issue with the business of ending poverty is just how old that business really is.

The book about poverty, The Other America, by Michael Harrington, though published in 1962 contains familiar themes to audiences even now.

The concern of automation destroying jobs. Car companies closing factories. Not enough public housing and criticising the building of big public housing blocks that became slums. The wage gap between men and women, black and white. The clashes between poor communities and the police. The immigrant being exploited and unwanted by some of the locals. The endless government reports on social issues, but not the will or action to address those issues.

The book even mentions a pandemic, known as the Asian flu, that hit the world in the 1950’s. In the book, it notes that the poor in America were hit particularly hard, the case with COVID-19 as well.

So, there is another group that should get out of the business of ending poverty. The people that are not serious about ending that poverty as fast as possible.