Employment in the UK is at a record high. But almost a million workers are on zero hours contracts with no formal job security. Broke s1e2
‘I’m just another player in the gig economy. And mouth to mouth, month to month.’ ibid. dude
Food banks: that number has risen to over 1.5 million. ibid.
‘Things are definitely getting worse. All the businesses is closing down … It’s empty, desolate land.’ Broke s1e3: Just Make It Better, Kevin in car
All across the UK people are working harder for longer and for less money. ibid.
Universal credit is the biggest overhaul of the welfare state in a generation. It’s designed to simplify the benefits system and encourage the unemployed into work. But it’s controversial. Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State I, BBC 2020
In the UK 7 million working-age people receive some kind of state benefit. Since the 1960s benefits have grown into a complex system of claims. ibid.
‘All the time we’re here [welfare office] we’re under the threat of sanctions.’ ibid. claimant
We follow the people designing the new system, the claimants living on it, and the staff in the Job Centres keeping everything on track … Toxteth Job Centre, Liverpool: more than 45,000 people on Universal Credit. Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State II
‘How long do I need to be doing this job-search thing? It’s stressful.’ ibid. middle-aged lady to case manager
In Toxteth Gemma manages a team of 41 life coaches who each have between 150-200 claimants on their caseload. ibid.
From the end of 2018 anybody whose circumstances have changed needs to move from the old system on to Universal Credit. For many there can be a gap of up to five weeks between applying and their first payment. Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State III
For young people entering work for the first time low wages and zero-hours contracts have become the standard. ibid.
When Universal Credit was announced in 2011 it was widely supported by all main political parties. Since it began rolling out, the new benefit has been heavily criticised. bid.
Poverty is a problem. It destroys families; it creates a harsh reality for one to live in. So I’d like to say that knowing the odds are against you, use this rage for motivation. Only then will we be able to break the vicious cycle of racism, and the modern-day slavery which is dressed up as the Justice System. Storyville: Roger Ross Williams ***** Jailed in America, inmate Massachusetts
He [Claude Monet] was complicated, passionate, dedicated, revolutionary and humorous. He was also at times destitute, suicidal, bereft and frustrated … A complex human being. Tim Marlow, Great Art s4e2: Claude Monet, ITV 2020
My family refuse to help me any more. I don’t know where I’ll sleep tomorrow … I was so upset yesterday I was stupid enough to hurl myself into the water. Fortunately no harm was done. ibid. Claude
1878: My wife has just had another baby and I find myself penniless and unable to pay for the medical care that both mother and child must have. ibid.
So educated Europeans today know how children die when the whip of debt and bombs whistle over poor countries. It is not knowledge that is lacking … Imperialism is a biologically necessary process that according to the laws of nature leads to the inevitable destruction of the lower races. Exterminate All the Brutes IV: The Bright Colours of Fascism, Sky Documentaries 2021
Brought up in a concrete jungle on glue and hate. The Football Factory 2004 starring Danny Dyer & Frank Harper & Neil Maskell & Roland Manookian & Tamer Hassan & Dudley Sutton & John Junkin & Jamie Foreman & Kara Tointon et al, director Nick Love
Philadelphia: the city of brotherly love ... more than 430,000 Philly residents live in poverty. Drugs Inc s4e7: Philly Dope, National Geographic 2014
We are here to provide for all those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves. That is our only certain good and great purpose on Earth, and if you ask me about those insoluble economic problems that may arise of the top are deprived of their initiative, I would answer, ‘To hell with them!’ The top is greedy and mean and will always find a way to take care of themselves. They always do. Michael Foot
In the London slums, half of all babies die before their first birthday. The British VI: Tale of Two Cities, Sky Atlantic 2012
Cholera: Snow wants to prove there is a link between the victims ... All the victims drank from the Broad Street pump ... He still has a pub in Soho named after him. ibid.
Britain begins the most radical clean-up in our history ... Pure uncontaminated water is available for all. ibid.
One third of London’s inhabitants live without sufficient food or shelter. ibid.
Charles Dickens writes about the city’s underclass. ibid.
Butler enters crime-ridden slums to challenge a form of exploitation common in Victorian cities – child prostitution. ibid.
During the 1930s in some towns of the industrial north 70% of men are out of work. The British VII: War and Peace
We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry every night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet. Ronald Reagan, TV speech 27th October 1964
Extreme poverty increases as billionaires’ fortunes balloon by $2.7 billion-a-day.
The richest 1% of Britons hold more wealth than 70 per cent of Britons.
The richest 1% have pocketed $26 trillion (£21 trillion) in new wealth since 2020, nearly twice as much as the other 99 per cent of the world’s population, an Oxfam report reveals today.
Survival of the Richest highlights how extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.
It shows that the 1% are getting an ever-greater share of the world’s resources, despite already capturing around half of all new wealth during the past decade. In the two years up to December 2021, the 1% grabbed almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of the $42 trillion (£34 trillion) of new wealth created.
The report is published as elites gather in the Swiss ski resort of Davos for the opening day of the World Economic Forum. Inequality is expected to be high on the agenda following the World Bank’s announcement last year that global progress in reducing extreme poverty has come to a halt amid what it expects to be the largest increase in global inequality since World War II. Oxfam online report 16th January 2023, ‘Richest 1% grab nearly twice as much new wealth as rest of the world put together’
A great deal these days is written about the slums. Housing Problems, short 1935
‘The problem of the slum faces us because in the early days rows upon rows of ugly, badly designed houses were hastily put up to provide accommodation for the ever increasing army of workers which poured in from the countryside.’ ibid. Councillor Lauda, chairman Stepney Housing Committee
‘This house is getting on my nerves … The upstairs is coming downstairs where it’s sinking … everything’s filthy. Dirty filthy walls and the vermin in the walls is wicked. So I tell you we are fed up.’ ibid. Mrs Hill
California is one of the richest states in the USA. However, it’s hard to believe what’s happening in this northern suburb of Los Angeles every week. In this parking lot three thousand cars are waiting in line for food to be handed out. Millions of Americans have lost their job as a result of the health crisis and are struggling to make ends meet. USA on the Brink, Youtube 51.54, 2021
The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of national scarcity; but a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied but written off as trash. John Berger
A life which resembles millions of other Americans following the recession. Nine million jobs have been created since the recession, most of which … [are] minimum wage jobs. Which means that Americans are working even more than ever. Working & Homeless: The Death of the American Dream, Youtube 52.18, 2022
The American dream should then be back on track. But at what price? ibid.
Unstable, part-time and underpaid jobs: this is the reality hiding behind the American dream. This has put almost one in every two workers into poverty … The working poor. ibid.
‘American dream’? mmm It’s all a bunch of crap.’ ibid.
American workers have come out of the crisis more vulnerable and poorer than ever, condemned to always working more hour just to get by. ibid.
In Seattle 500 families live in these temporary camps tolerated by the city. ibid.
It’s a dream for the giants of finance … with the workers paying the price. ibid.
The recession was the perfect pretext to put the new rules of the game into place. ibid.