Well that depends on your perspective and or actual experience.
Not too many of us now live in tin shanties, with dirt floors, trying to survive on just one meal a day, if we're lucky!
What I consider poor is an income that simply doesn't cover real needs or the essential repairs/maintenance or rent! i.e., a Sydney bedsit costing more than a single pension.
And widowed mums who sacrificed their income earning years, to the task of raising a family, are just not your (ivory tower dweller) put down (can't afford a mobile phone) absolutely ludicrous idea of a "victim"!
In a global context, the top 10% own at least 50% of all the available wealth!
Whereas in the USA. the top 1% own more than 30% of it?
And for 30 odd years the minimum wage just never moved up off the $5.00 an hour floor!
Strangely conservatives always seem to equate increased indebtedness to increased wealth!
And billionaire Buffet was surprised he claimed, when he discovered his secretary paid twice as much tax, relative to her income, as he did!
What what was missing both there and I'm all right jack, articles like this, is any real idea of inherent fairness!?
Perhaps that's why for every dollar of debt the US now creates just 0.03 dollars worth of economic growth!
Contrast that with the Keynesian approach, which created 2.4 dollars worth or economic growth for every dollar of debt, and in the process created an unprecedented period of UNIVERSAL prosperity.
We in this so called rich county, have over 100,000 homeless!
Now I don't why that's so, but I'll warrant people able to obfuscate around the problem with do nothing essays, are a very big part of, I'm all right jack; ignore it and maybe it'll go away, problem?
Rhrosty

Well said as usual Don, & yes far too many today expect a cosy comfortable living, no matter how little effort they put into attaining it. It is perhaps an expected entitlement in today's world.

However I can not agree with you on your suggestion that we are better educated. I would like to know what gives you that belief. Is it that more kids go on to senior high school? Is it that more attend a university, & leave there with some kind degree? How does this compare with the claim that the kids coming into university know little, & require much remedial work, before any real learning can commence?

In my day, less than 10% went past intermediate school level. However kids coming from 3Rd year, with a reasonable pass in the intermediate, could go to tech college, & had the necessary math to do an electrical, or other apprenticeship without trouble. Today even those with very high achiever passes at matriculation, [year 12], have to be given remedial math classes to be able to handle most apprenticeships.

I recently asked eight 20 something above average educated young folk, six with degrees, to mark the Oz capitals, & the Murray Darling river system on a blank map of Oz. Only one even got close, the rest had no idea. It was a great laugh, but we should have been crying.

So sorry, but I can see education going backwards at an accelerating rate. Yes they can mostly one finger type on their mobile, but their understanding of even simple things & how the world works is slipping quickly.

<The IPA supports the free market of ideas, the free flow of capital, a limited and efficient
< government, evidence-based public policy, the rule of law, and representative
<democracy. Again, it's hard to see anyone likely to be opposed to all that.

What a load of double speak.

"The free flow of capital"

Lets not have any trades restrictions, and allow us to shift our profits abroad to lower taxing countries.

"a limited and efficient government"

Lets not a have a government that puts into place things like OH & S regulations, lets have a government that rubber stamps approvals the minute they are presented.
Lets not have a government that puts into place legal protections for the masses.

"Evidence based policy"

Sounds good, but typically the evidence can easily be manipulated.

"The rule of law"

Lets consider that the financial (Banking) sector is trying it's hardest to get this Liberal government to change the laws meant to protect investors from corrupt practises.

NoW lets go and pull the other leg.

"The point about these two reports, coincidentally appearing in the same week, is that they are both correct. Yes, Australia has done remarkably well over the last century, and so have the great majority of Australians. But inside that success there are still 'victims', people who need help. "

Exactly.

At last an article that recognises both the great improvements in our living standards in recent years, and also the obligation to look after those in need. Poverty is both a relative and an absolute concept. Most analysis I've seen emphasises one and downplays the other.

far greater spiritual poverty than natural poverty in this country. Many industries have been set up around victimhood which demands heaps of money and at times contributes to poverty. Unless spiritual issues are dealt with the fatherless, the hungry, the abuse, the suicides will increase. Many more will complete counselling degrees, social welfare degrees and other studies that will never touch on the real issues leading to poverty. The mantra of discrimination, disenchantment etc will keep many in tax payer funded jobs but do little to alleviate poverty.

Runner, you sound like the world is coming to an end. Far from it. The Indian Government has viewed its situation of birth control and you might of seen it, the "smart" move about overpopulation in their case as with most counties, is to reduce the ability to breed in the first place. Dumping billions of dollars into the problem will not fix what's needed to be done. I know your a religious man, but there comes a time to see the real answers to the worlds problems when our very survival depends on it more than ever.

Tally