This week has involved much to prove the maxim that all political
questions are in the end economic questions, and I might add that perhaps most
of our economic questions are in the end philosophical or theological
questions.
This week we have seen senior church leaders from the Catholic,
Anglican, Methodist, URC and Quaker denominations speak out on behalf of those
in food poverty and against the welfare policies of the current government.
Over the last few days in response to their words articles have been
written questioning whether Church leaders should get involved with politics,
articles condescending them as being naive, articles slurring them as being
from the lefty north and articles making (the sometimes valid) criticism that
the Church’s own wealth is not always spent on helping the poor.
Alongside these direct challenges have been a number of other articles
aimed at undermining their wider argument.
Today’s Sun headline being a clear example: “Welfare Madness Exposed,
Benefits made me 23st”. Or the constant claims made by the coalition government
that people must take responsibility for themselves and stop relying on
handouts. Recent programmes such as ‘benefit street’ or longer ago
‘Shameless’ reinforce this ideological message.
The reality is that the government spends a far greater percentage of
the welfare budget on benefits for those who are in work but whose wages are
aren't high enough to provide even a subsistence living; than it does on
supporting those who are not working. These working poor who receive very
little reward for their labour are hardly the irresponsible class David Cameron
and Nick Clegg would have us believe they are.
The wealthy beneficiaries of the current status-quo don't want us to understand these realities. Much better
that the working poor direct their anger and frustration against the relatively
few non-working poor, than that they direct it at their own employers who
refuse to give them a living wage or secure contracts. Much better that these
“Hard working families” are deceived into believing their bosses earning six
figure salaries have to be rewarded for their exceptional talent while they
struggle to get by on minimum wage, in some cases needing to visit food banks
in their lunch break. Much better that we allow the Sun to find convenient weak scapegoats for
our society’s ills.
And what of the educated middle class? Those with a little more money
and a little more natural intelligence are normally able to climb a little
higher up the income ladder. Their own middle class gifts being “they believe” worth
more money than those of the people who clean our toilets and stack our
supermarket shelves. The only request which the market economy asks of
this group is simply to close its ears and eyes, live in your middle class
suburbia, feel a little bit superior to those not so fortunate perhaps throwing
them a few surplus pounds not needed for your morning coffee in Starbucks, and throw
your energy into following television non-reality shows, the premier league,
planning your next holiday or redecorating your home.
Is this really the kind of society we want to live in?
