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Original poster

The Poor have never had it so good!

104 replies

Catmeouws · 21/08/2018 03:14

There has never been such a good time to be poor as now! Compared to 50 or 100 or 200 years ago the poor in the UK and other developed countries have never had it so good!

OP posts:
Bombardier25966 · 21/08/2018 16:25

You have no idea what it's like to be poor - there are plenty of people in the world who would do anything to have living standards a quarter as good as you whiners.....

Poverty is relative. It is nonsensical to compare the living standards of one of the richest countries in the world with a third world nation.

Blessthekids · 21/08/2018 16:31

It is all relative, being poor is not a lovely way to live. You are surrounded by those who have more and bombarded by images of a life you cannot have. Yes you have access to a free education and free healthcare but the day to day grind of either having not enough or only enough to make ends meet starts to wear away at your well being and mental health after a while. Community links and family dynamics are not nearly as strong as they were so people of all walks of life no longer have access to a social/emotional support group on their doorstep. Many people don't even know their neighbours. And with housing costs soaring, those with less can't put down roots as they are at the mercy of land lords and employers. The wealth gap in this country is getting wider and wider so perhaps instead we should say that "the wealthy have never had it so good instead".

isseywithcats · 21/08/2018 16:37

So 1980s my ex husband i could afford to have three children and a mortgae on one full time blue collar job wage and my kids didnt go without anything, nowadays parents need two full time workers to be able to afford one child, and a lot of them cant even get on the property ladder, people on benefits can have their money cut to nothing for 13 weeks for being five minutes late for an appointment, disabled people are turned down for money they need and told able to work when they really cant, someone like me who was single five years ago and working had £15 a week to feed myself after bills and rent paid, yeah right the poor are better off nowadays, just piss off love or step into the shoes of the poor for a year

vampirethriller · 21/08/2018 17:01

I worked hard at school. I got two degrees. I had a good job and a nice flat and a partner, I come from a middle class family.
Earlier this year I got pregnant and my partner left me. A serious health condition got worse and then I lost my job because my place of work closed down. Now I'm on a council estate, seven months pregnant and living on £4,000 a year. I'm poor. Come and see how good it is here.

Pinklady11 · 21/08/2018 17:09

Why would you be putting your arse on the line OP by entering exams that according to you have ‘been made easy’? Surely you could just turn up and get an A?

PinkBuffalo · 21/08/2018 17:23

Theresa May joins MN
^ exactly what I was thinking

faeriequeen · 21/08/2018 17:38

In many ways you're right - things like the NHS, free primary and secondary schooling, employment contracts, the right to vote and the welfare state all make life better for the poor. But let's not forget that they weren't given, they were fought for and we must keep fighting for them.

In the last decade essential services have been cut and cut. We all need to use our votes to keep them going.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 21/08/2018 18:11

I've got a lot to say. However I'm not going to as this is obviously a wind them up and watch them go thread. I'm not feeding it

CAAKE · 21/08/2018 18:48

This thread reminds me of -

IdahoJones · 21/08/2018 18:53

About that Wilko cider recipe ... is it remotely nice? Might add it to my brexizombie winter apocalypse prep stash.

allyouneedis · 21/08/2018 19:16

please don’t feed the troll
🙄

shemakesmewaitonabedofnails · 21/08/2018 20:08

@BoiledFrog @BlairWaldorfsHeadband your posts make me so sad!! You were good enough to go to oxford and didn't. I went and would have loved to meet more people like you. Not the entitled people there who made me hate it Sad

Leesa65 · 21/08/2018 20:59

Fuck Me , aren't you nice !!!

First ever Biscuit .

Knittedfairies · 21/08/2018 21:02

Give over OP.

LadyMacbethWasMisunderstood · 21/08/2018 21:59

Giving you the benefit of the doubt, your post is very simplistic OP.

To some extent you are right. It is likely better to be desperately poor now than it was 200 years ago. Just as it’s better to have an operation now. Or to give birth now. Or to be mentally ill now. Or to be in prison now. Etc etc. Lots of things have improved over time; simply meaning that very poor poeople are less likely to die as a direct result of their poverty today than 200 years ago. But to suggest that poverty stricken people “have never had it so good” is crass.

Conditions for everyone have improved. But the chasm between those who have and those who have not has certainly not narrowed. And in my view what makes it scandalous that dire poverty exists today is that we are living in a supposedly progressive society with a “welfare state” that is ostensibly there to be a safety net, but is in fact failing to protect the most vulnerable. 200 years ago there was little delusion that the poor were looked after. Nowadays people such as the OP find some foundation in the media and popular press for their beliefs that poverty is no longer a real blight on our social landscape and consequently offer up such simplistic musings.

longwayoff · 22/08/2018 12:07

Excellent post ladym

MotherOfMinions · 22/08/2018 12:21

The real issue here is that living standards are declining for the first time in over 100 years and there is no economic justification for it. Also, for the first time since the welfare state was introduced, people claiming benefits- including working people- can be made homeless or hungry through no fault of their own.

SapphireSeptember · 22/08/2018 12:35

People are still dying because of poverty in a supposedly first world country, how the fuck is that even allowed? The UN have raised concerns with how we treat the disabled (and the Daily Fail were predictably outraged they were interfering in our affairs, instead of being concerned about people in this country who are suffering. Bastards.) So yes, things may be better now, but we KNOW better now, there's no excuse for this nonsense.

IdahoJones · 22/08/2018 16:26

In fact poverty and equality in the UK are now thought to be so bad that the UN has asked rapporteur Sir Philip Alston to investigate.

Submissions welcome (link in article)

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/22/un-poverty-chief-calls-for-evidence-on-effects-of-austerity-in-uk

CaMePlaitPas · 26/08/2018 18:53

Are you a Daily Mail journo?

c3pu · 26/08/2018 18:58

The standard of living for poor people in the UK is probably better than it has ever been at any point in the past, that is true.

That doesn't mean fuck all in real terms though, where the number of "poor" people could be reduced, and the disparity between the rich and poor is so great, etc etc.

The times may be different, but problems remain.

CoolCarrie · 26/08/2018 19:04

OP fuck off!

Queenofthedrivensnow · 26/08/2018 20:03

Is the op IDS?

longwayoff · 26/08/2018 20:15

Hmm. Poverty's not what it was, is it OP?

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