"The Rich get Richer, the Poor get Richer.." Do you agree with that?

Question

A common phrase you hear is that "The Rich get Richer, the Poor get Poorer"... but is it really so?

Take practically any Western country. Bar the Homeless and a few other exceptions, the general "Poor" have at least a roof over the head, clean shelter, food and and unlimited supply of clean and fresh water, and luxuries like internet access and TV, and the chance to better themselves.

Over 100 years ago in the UK, Europe, America, etc, the general poor lived in squalor and disease.

So you could say the Rich are getting more filthy rich as there's more Billionaires and Millionaires, but the poor (as a whole) are too.....

Answer 1

There is poverty, not to the extent of the Third World obviously but we shouldn't be complacent. Two years ago 31,000 extra winter deaths occured due to the bad winter we had.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/elderhealth/10474966/Energy-row-erupts-as-winter-deaths-spiral-29-per-cent-to-four-year-high-of-31000.html



The number of people admitted to hospital for malnutrition has alomst doubled since the banking crash of 2008.

http://www.channel4.com/news/malnutrition-health-emergency-dwp-british-medical-journal



Shelter estimates that over 1 million kids are living in poor housing, which increases their chances of ill health and disability by 25%.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/39202/Chance_of_a_Lifetime.pdf



Most of us are getting richer and are expected to live longer. But a significant minority are being left behind and they should not be forgotten about.

Answer 2

So you're ignoring the more 100,000 homeless, the 1 million kids that are malnourished, and clothed by neighbors, because their parents literally can't afford it, and living in 'housing' that is the equivalent of slums?



You're buying into the facade, poverty is just as real in the West, as it is in the 3rd World, we just choose to ignore it, 'put perspective' on it, or rationalize why it's 'not that bad'.



The difference between rich, and poor is at it's highest level in 200 years in the UK, and you'd know that if you talked to people that work those poor, like the Salvation Army.

Answer 3

You can argue that the poor in say the UK are living in better conditions than they were during the early 20th century but they aren't really becoming better off in contrast to the rich

Some people in this country waste vast amounts of money on a piece of canvas that someone threw paint on while others can't afford to heat their home during the winter or give up a meal so their children can be fed

If you look at the graphs you can also see that over the decades the wealth for even the middle class has actually been falling. They amount of money they take home is worth much less than it used it to be

The wealth is disproportionately in the hands of a few elite rich that have the audacity to waste it and that wealth divide keeps getting bigger

Answer 4

The trend is that most people work more for less and the 'rich' work less for more. Generally speaking anyone who's ever played Monopoly understands that at some point in the game the 'winner' become obvious. Boardwalk and Park Place with hotels is the tip off. The point however isn't about individuals with wealth, the point is an ever smaller universe of massive trans national corporations. AT and T plans on buying another massive corporation for 50 BILLION dollars. As 50 billion is only a small part of their available wealth you really have to wonder...how did they accumulate that much wealth? By 'working harder'? By being smarter? Meanwhile the 95% of us that belong to the world of the hourly wage earner keep falling behind as group. Corporations keep getting wealthier. That's the actual equation. The question is...how much more wealth will corporations require before the 'working class' gets a break?

Answer 5

people still live in squalor

I went viewing a rented property with a friend , we had no idea as the advert said nice area freshly decorated

wallpaper hung off , it was damp dirty back gate hanging off littered with rubbish , it was a hovel that would take months and thousands to sort out

The landlord drove to us in a jag and did not even look embarrassed at the state of the property

Answer 6

Perhaps - maybe...



I am from a relatively poor background but happy to say I did okay in life, and not obsessed with anything much, including money. In life I've seen the poorest man do great things with very little, and seen the rich man also do good work with very much. Wealth is not important to me. The spirit of the man and the person inside is more important to me. Political crapp and wealth doesn't even matter one iota when there is no civilisation within 500 miles in any direction, humankind is ALL the same when it boils down to it, black, white, yellow, red.

Answer 7

A quick online search reveals that poverty is defined as 60% below median income. An actual example given is for a family of two adults and two children on an income of £268 per week, AFTER tax, NI, council tax, rent, mortgage and water charges. So it is disposable income.



Now I would suggest this is not real poverty at all but a politically-designed falsehood to create yet another group of victims in society.



I mange quite well on less than that! But there again I don't lust after 50-inch widescreen tellys or three foreign hols per year or a new car every five minutes. I save what money I can rather than blowing it all down the pub or on drugs/gambling and cook from fresh ingredients.



This is a sham, nothing else. Disgruntled is quite correct.



Many people are financially inept as well so whatever you give them is going to be blown the same day.

Answer 8

There's an old Victorian Music Hall song with these words in it. . . .sung in a Cockney accent.



"It's the rich what gets the money

and it's the poor what gets the blame,

ain't it all a blooming shame."



Which very neatly sums it all up really.



I prefer the Classical Athenian style of democracy - when the Assembly had voted in favour of building a new warship (trireme) they sent a messenger into the city find the richest man and bring him before the Assembly where he would be told he had to pay for it.



After all, what are Oligarchs for?

Answer 9

im definitely richer, and since I don't know any poor people I have no idea whether they are poorer or not

Answer 10

It's comparative,isn't it ?

The gap between rich and poor grows,but currently that means that rich are getting richer ,faster than the poor are getting less poor.

Answer 11

Yes, it’s great isn’t it? When the resources run out, we’ll all be living in squalor. You really have no idea what it is like to be poor today in the UK have you? Poverty means the same thing now as it did one hundred years ago. Hunger, cold and darkness. The only improvement is health. We have a ‘free’ NHS to thank for that. Take away the ‘free’ and there’s no health improvement either.

Answer 12

The rich sure are poor, in need of yet more excessive millions. Poor rich, they cant afford to lord it like the olden days, against their own peers. Must be real tough.



Poor Us - An Animated History of Poverty

Poor people through the ages, beginning in Neolithic times and up to the present.

Poor Us: an animated history - Why Poverty?: http://youtu.be/TxbmjDngois

Going Underground: Shady Transatlantic trade, Fra…: http://youtu.be/vsVM5i5gvFo

Going Underground: Redefining privacy, CCTV obses…: http://youtu.be/WvRz0HWwtVM

Tax Justice Network on UK capital of money launde…: http://youtu.be/EnpadkFPXWo

Going Underground: Undemocratic wars, probation s…: http://youtu.be/4qywMo_PQlY

Going Underground: Snowden shakedown in UK, 'big …: http://youtu.be/kQZJZVkZ6CE



Intelligence sell-off, Westminster v Banks & SPIN…: http://youtu.be/k4wkoolbQ54

UK tax havens and City Of London control UK (23De…: http://youtu.be/r92rUjsiZCU

Going Underground: Bursting the capitalism bubble…: http://youtu.be/RI5a3jsemoI

Keiser Report: The Speculation Game (E599): http://youtu.be/oFtZjIDIJPY

Answer 13

It doesn't take a genius to calculate that the financial gap between the highest incomes and the lowest incomes is getting wider. This is the problem and what you are stating is a misquote.

Answer 14

No the poor do not get richer



The richest 10 percent own 40 percent of wealth in the UK

Answer 15

it's true abject poverty is over in the uk, no one lives like people were forced too only fifty years ago other than through mental health reasons, this is a victory in a war waged by our grandparents, jam not the empire was the call in the nineteen fifties, we the British people own that gift no one else.



the rich they can look after themselves, the new theatre of operations be should directed at equality of opportunity and if the monarchy has to be swept away to achieve that as i believe, then the monarchy has to be swept away along with all it's baggage. as i think there's a more fundamental sort of poverty rather than that of means and that's poverty of assertion, and my god do the British underclass suffer that even to medieval levels.. the garbage they've put up with through engineered lack of self worth is a human rights crime in my opinion.

Answer 16

The so-called poor in this country are better off than they've ever been, they've never had it so good!



UK poverty is a myth perpetrated by the left who want to use it as a political football!

Answer 17

I totally agree