Because I go on about it all the time, politicians and the public ask me, what would you need to do if you sincerely wanted to get rid of poverty? What would be the first thing? The first thing I would do is an audit of what is being delivered by government at the moment. What works and what doesn’t work. Where are the holes in the Swiss cheese of governmental delivery? I would make this audit as thorough as time would allow.
It might take six months to complete. It would highlight sterling examples of poverty-busting activity. And it would highlight the things that governmental practices do which end up enshrining people in poverty.
‘Warts and all’, it need not dress things up as workable when they are unworkable. What we do know is that circa 80% of the government response to poverty is spent in dealing with the emergency thrown up by poverty. That is, bringing relief to the poor.
It’s poverty money that does not generate opportunity. It holds the hands of the poorest caught in poverty. The vast array of thinking around poverty focuses on the emergency of poverty.
It’s about trying to give the poor more. Never about how we prevent poverty, or how we cure people of poverty. Because we are so obsessed with how painful poverty is, the big money goes on bringing ‘succour now!’.
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