Is this really the kind of society we want to live in?

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?