So..Britain..

[Lanark2]

Overheard in gym today, a 20something woman, explaining how she gets up at 4am to clean at a chain store's offices before work, and has done for over three years, not to have a holiday, but just to live. My work has a guy who is making himself I'll eating just bread and ridiculously cheap coleslaw sandwiches, to keep his work food bill below £1 a week so he can afford the commute. I am surviving on lentil stews and £3 chickens, and had a month without being able to shower or use the toilet because I couldn't afford a plumber until next month. Another person takes home the work toilet paper and teabags because she can't get by (zero hours) and at my second/third job, some staff live on food that is thrown away by that workplace because their wages are too low to live on as well. What is happening??

I'm reminded of this comic: thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate

To those saying all people have to do is pull themselves up by their bootstraps and try harder - grow up. Sometimes life is cruel and unfair and people suffer duebto no fault of their own. We shouldn't have to put up with growing inequality and a shitty life for so many.

People saying that these complaints are just first world problems make me so In my city (which is very small) we have just had a third person die on the streets in as many weeks. I work in schools and have seen, first hand, children coming from homes where three or more are sharing a single bed and rug, children coming in underweight as their parents can't afford food and constantly getting ill because they can't afford to heat the house or have a nutritious meal.

Not all of these families are visibly living in poverty, they often try their hardest to look like they're coping but unfortunately it's just a facade. So when people say 'It's regional' it really isn't, you're just haven't seen it yet. The fact that we're in a first world country makes it even worse. There's no excuse for this level of poverty in such a wealthy and developed country.