Millions trapped in poverty

Vanguard November 2012 p. 1
by Bill F.

If you believed the government rhetoric, you might think the Australian economy was in great shape at a time of global capitalist economic and financial crisis. It may be for a few rich parasites, but there’s nothing trickling down to the growing number of poor in the system.

(above: Dr Cassandra  Goldie releasing the ACOSS report on poverty in Australia)

When the politicians and the mass media talk about the economy, they only mean the economy of big business, the foreign monopolies, the big shareholders, the corporations. The economic plight of the poor, the working poor and those cast aside by capitalism is ignored or suppressed.    

ACOSS Poverty in Australia Report

A recent report by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), based on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, has highlighted the extent of creeping poverty in Australia. It has revealed more than 2.26 million people living below the so-called “poverty line” of 50% of median average income. In 2010, the poverty line for a single adult was a disposable income of less than $358 a week and $752 for a couple with two children.

According to ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie, “… this report we’re releasing says we have 2.2 million people who are living below the poverty line. If you’re a single person that means you have just over $50 a day to cover everything.”

The report showed that 575,000 children live in poverty, and that women were more likely to be poor as they did more unpaid care work, and generally had lower wages. Almost two-thirds of jobless people live below the poverty line, and many of those who work can get only low paid casual or part-time jobs.

Shocking as these statistics are, they understate the extent of real poverty which extends to millions more working poor who have incomes just above the so-called “poverty line” and also have little disposable income after paying rising utility bills, rents or mortgages, childcare, transport costs, and other debts.

The mis-named Newstart allowance for unemployed people, currently $492.60 per fortnight for a single unemployed person, is being reviewed by a Senate inquiry. ACOSS and other social welfare organisations are urging the government to increase the payment closer to the level of the age pension and to index it to inflation.

But the system isn’t interested in providing a decent standard of living for people it has pushed to the fringes. It provides barely enough to prevent starvation and to maintain a reserve army of unemployed workers to exploit again if the boom times return, and in the meantime, keep the wages of those it continues to exploit as low as possible.  

Dr John Falzon, of the St Vincent de Paul Society said “It is a matter of deep shame for a wealthy nation like ours that our unemployment benefits, for example, have been kept deliberately low as a means of humiliating the very people they were originally designed to assist”.

The latest kick in the guts for the struggling poor is the decision to cut out the parenting allowance for single parents and force them onto Newstart when their youngest child turns eight. At current rates, this means a loss of $100 a week!

Capitalism breeds poverty

The ruling class promotes the idea of blaming the individual for their own poverty. But, poverty is an inevitable condition of capitalism, where the class of corporate monopoly interests grabs most of the wealth created by the majority, the working class.

In the midst of immense wealth and massive profits flowing offshore to US, European and Asian owners and investors, greater numbers of working people are now deemed to be ‘surplus to requirements’, and condemned to languish on the scrapheap.

Nor does the system like to be reminded of their plight. Dr Marcus Banks from RMIT, who had previously worked at Centrelink, put it well. “Where are poor people presented on television?” he said. “They are hidden. The idea that you work hard and make good counteracts the more complicated story of their experience in Australia today.”

The struggle for reforms within the system will always ebb and flow, but sooner or later the hidden and downtrodden will demand an independent Australian where the people have control of the national wealth and resources, and can build the national economy to benefit the great majority.

Now, that’s the sort of real change this country needs.