How the poor were lost.
Copyright 2006 Vincent Wilmot
When the poor were the majority.
The poor in developed countries like the USA and UK are now a
minority, though up to maybe the 1950's or 1960's they had been
a majority.
While the poor were a majority their main problems were simply
economic poverty and economic exploitation. Government bodies
manned by the upper and middle classes understood this
sufficiently to be able to handle the poor with some
appropriateness, if not always entirely to the poor's liking.
The votes of the poor majority were basically sought with a
policy mix of small economic titbits and nationalistic policies.
The poor becoming a minority.
In the USA by 1950, and the UK by 1960, growing economic
prosperity saw the numbers of the poor begin to fall until soon
they became a minority. This was helped by more enlightened
government policy, and was good for the many that then escaped
poverty. Unfortunately the remaining poor as a minority were to
face seriously increased problems.
There were two main reasons why the modern minority poor in
advanced countries faced increasing problems. The first was that
the poor soon had more complex, though supposedly helpful,
welfare systems applying to them and giving them new problems -
and also as a minority they now also hit new minority social
exclusion problems. The second main reason the modern poor in
advanced countries faced increasing problems was that they
became less seen and less understood by the governing upper and
middle classes, so their governing became wildly inappropriate
and plain wrong.
How affluent governments lost their poor.
When the poor in developed countries became a minority,
democratic political parties began to see their votes as
unnecessary, though the poor are a socially significant minority
whose misgovernment can seriously undermine society.
Majority middle-class issues became prioritised, for example
huge anti-tobacco-smoking resources being applied by government
and employer bodies but much less on drunkenness, drug-taking or
weapon-carrying - pushing many from cigarettes to these.
Socially tobacco is a small undesirable but the available
alternatives for the poor are really much worse. And some of the
health problems of smoking may be due to inhaling cigarette
lighter flints rather than inhaling tobacco.
All government, charity, employer and other bodies being now run
by a middle-class having no real understanding of modern poor
minority problems has led to many policies affecting the poor
becoming totally inappropriate. And developed countries
prioritising middle-class issues and worsening the position of
their poor minority are in effect doing a Nero and 'fiddling
while Rome burns', but their governments basically lost the poor.
Re-finding the poor.
In developed countries now, those producing policies are
educated professionals with little or no experience of the poor
today, and they may commonly have correct general theories but
often be missing the correct practical detail needed for correct
modern policy making for today's minority poor. They urgently
need to find and involve the tiny handful of street-wise
professionals who somehow do happen to have substantial real
experience of today's poor themselves - but as yet they are
totally unaware that this is needed.
Or if modern affluent middle-class government cannot find a way
to better govern their poor and other minorities, then perhaps
modern democratic government will demand less middle-class
officials. Maybe a percentage of politicians should not be
elected, but instead be randomly selected from elector lists ?