If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. Ecclesiastes 5:8
What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? Isaiah 3:15
My son, defraud not the poor of his living, and make not the needy eyes to wait long.
Make not an hungry soul sorrowful; neither provoke a man in his distress.
Add not more trouble to an heart that is vexed; and defer not to give to him that is in need.
Reject not the supplication of the afflicted; neither turn away thy face from a poor man.
Turn not away thine eye from the needy, and give him none occasion to curse thee: Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 4:1-5
As the wild ass is the lion’s prey in the wilderness: so the rich eat up the poor. Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 13:19
For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. Matthew 26:11
And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:
For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. Mark 12:41-44
For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. Mark 14:7
And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all. Luke 21:2&3
For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always. John 12:8
But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats. James 2:6
And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.
And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.
And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guiltless, otherwise ye are condemned; and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received.
And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you – that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God – I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants. Book of Mormon: Mosiah 4:21-26
What would the daughters of the rich do with themselves if the poor ceased to exist? Angela Carter, Saints and Strangers
The intelligent poor individual was a much finer observer than the intelligent rich one. The poor individual looks around him at every step, listens suspiciously to every word he hears from the people he meets; thus, every step he takes presents a problem, a task, for his thoughts and feelings. He is alert and sensitive, he is experienced, his soul has been burned. Knut Hamsun, Hunger
The rich get richer and the poor get – children. F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
‘Well, the vicar goes about telling the Idlers that it’s quite right for them to do nothing, and that God meant them to have nearly everything that is made by those who work. In fact, he tells them that God made the poor for the use of the rich. Then he goes to the workers and tells them that God meant them to work very hard and to give all the good things they make to those who do nothing, and that they should be very thankful to God and to the idlers for being allowed to have even the very worst food to eat and the rags, and broken boots to wear. He also tells them they mustn’t grumble, or be discontented because they’re poor in this world, but that they must wait till they’re dead, and then God will reward them by letting them go to a place called heaven.’ Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
They had been so busy running after work, and working for the benefit of others, that they had overlooked the fact that they were only earning a bare living for themselves and now, after forty years’ hard labour, the old man was clothed in rags and on the verge of destitution. ibid.
This made 40 hours a week, so that those who were paid sevenpence an hour earned £1.3.4. Those who got sixpence-halfpenny drew £1.1.8. Those whose wages were fivepence an hour were paid the princely sum of 16/8d, for their week’s hard labour, and those whose rate was fourpence-halfpenny ‘picked up’ 15/-. ibid.
To be rich consists not necessarily in having much money, but in being able to enjoy an abundance of the things that are made by work; and that poverty consists not merely in being without money, but in being short of the necessities and comforts of life – or in other words in being short of the Benefits of Civilisation, the things that are all, without exception, produced by work. ibid.
Who advocates taking all the money in the country and sharing it out equally? ibid.
Plenty of materials – Plenty of Labour – Plenty of Machinery – and, nearly everybody going short of nearly everything! ibid.
These are the down and out. Familiar images of displaced people on our streets, far removed from our lives. Most of us feel we could never end up like this yet some of us do. Down and Out in America, 1986
In the land of opportunity there are 34 million people living in poverty. 20 million a day go hungry. 2 million are homeless. Here in the heartland of America there is great devastation. The family farmer, the backbone of America, is being driven off his land. ibid.
Ten years ago the banks encouraged these farmers to borrow and expand. The policy has backfired, and now the Farm Credit system is in trouble. They are calling in old loans and denying old ones. ibid.
3,500 jobs a day are moving out of this country. The rubber industry has gone to Mexico. Electronics has gone to South Korea. Textiles to the far east. ibid.
The gap between rich and poor in the UK is now wider than at any time since the Second World War. We asked four children to show us what life is really like growing up in Britain today below the poverty line. Poor Kids, BBC 2011
‘I think I’m poor because we only get £420 a month.’ ibid. Sam
Poor children are 2.5 times more likely to suffer chronic illness. ibid.
The thing that affects Page’s life the most is the damp that permeates her flat and many others in these blocks. ibid.
‘My sister donated this shirt to me because I needed a shirt for school.’ ibid.
Over one million homes in the UK are classified as ‘unfit to live in’. ibid.
That hunch, that there were many scroungers, has never gone away. It motivated some extraordinary individuals over the next hundred years to try and crack the problem of the poor. Workers or Shirkers? Ian Hislop’s Victorian Benefits, BBC 2018
Can history tell us whether poverty is an inevitable fact of life, a moral fault of individuals or a failure of our whole society? ibid.
Jeremy Bentham – the godfather of Victorian rationalism. ibid.
1834 Poor Law … This is the forbidden world of the workhouse. ibid.
Bosanquet’s big idea that to tackle poverty you need to do more than just dole out money – you have to intervene early with chaotic families. ibid.
‘I’m undeserving, and I mean to go on being undeserving.’ ibid. My Fair Lady, Alfred Doolittle