AFRO-NETS> Attacking Poverty

["Tony O'Brien" <aob@senet.com.au>]

Attacking Poverty
-----------------

The ongoing debate over the definition of poverty is interesting but 
futile. I would still contend, as I did in my introductory posting to 
this group, that the only useful definition of poverty is a subjective 
one that poverty is simply "The unavailability, in a given society, of 
what that society considers the basic necessities."

The ongoing contention though is a little like trying to identify the 
make and model of a car which is about to run someone over. In such a 
situation, the identity of the fast moving problem is the last thing on 
the bystander's mind. Their impulsive reaction will be to shout, or to 
physically attempt to save the about-to-be victim from injury or death. 
Another way of saving this person, which in the heat of the moment no 
one would consider, would be by some means or other to stop the car.

Our attempts to alleviate, or start to eradicate poverty at home and 
abroad almost always are impulsive or reactive. We see a group of fel-
low humans in dire straits and we either send aid, or send people to 
work with the locals in order to improve their lives or at least their 
basic living conditions. In so doing we ignore the cause of the prob-
lem, and thus contribute to it's continuance. What we need to do is to 
stop the car.

To use another analogy - If a person is carrying such a great burden 
that their knees buckle, the solution to the problem is not to strap 
braces to the knees, nor to set up an enquiry into the skeletal and 
muscular structure of the knees - the solution is to lighten or remove 
the burden. Many doctors might examine this damaged individual, and 
each, depending on their area of expertise, may find a multitude of 
other not so visible ailments, - breathlessness, bunions, arthritis, 
spinal deformity, and each would diagnose what they saw as the source 
of the problem. None of them saw the load, because the poor sufferer 
had left it outside on the hospital veranda. This person's problem will 
only be solved, however, if we step back for a more objective less-
economically-blinkered view, beyond the apparent cause, and discover 
that the problem in fact was the size of the burden.

There are any number of suggested and imagined causes for the many 
symptoms and malignant growths festering on our social systems across 
the globe. There is in reality only one cause, and that cause is the 
private appropriation of the economic rent. The only solution to this 
problem is to socialise the economic rent, allowing all citizens equal 
and secure access to land and resources, in return for their contribut-
ing to the provision of government services through a rent on the site 
(exclusive of improvements) they occupy. Only then will the poor be in 
a position, without being burdened with the upkeep of the landlord, to 
work as much or as little as they like, and to keep or exchange the 
fruits of their own labour.

The following quote written early this century on the subject of Irish 
land laws, dramatically illustrates the same point "A people robbed of 
their rights in the land must remain impoverished + Ads - The more they 
struggle, the tighter do their bonds become. They huddle together in 
slums and underground cellars to escape rent, and the more they over-
crowd, the higher do rents rise against them. As they try to advance 
along the road of industrial progress, the higher becomes the toll lev-
ied upon them by monopoly. If they increase their productive power, the 
larger becomes the tribute demanded for the use of the sole source of 
production, the land and the resources, which it contains. While that 
source is monopolised and the people denied access to it, the growth of 
population, which under free conditions would bring increased wealth to 
all, strengthens the power of the landlord to extort high rents and 
provides the capitalist with an overflowing supply of cheap labour."

Tony O'Brien
19 Cowper Road
Black Forest SA 5035, Australia
Tel: +61-8-8297-5539 
mailto:aob@senet.com.au
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