"We do not need more misinformed contributors".

Such as David Hale?

What is poverty? Some arbitrary level set by some bureaucrat, or an Anglican University Lay Chaplain, staff worker for the Australian Student Christian Movement and a member of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship?

Some people will always be poverty stricken, no matter how much money they get. Others will always manage, no matter how little they get.

Anybody claiming that there is genuine poverty in a welfare state like Australia is no more than a crazy political activist. People are not equal. Those who cannot manage on what they are given by our very generous welfare system will never manage any better with more handouts

The construct of society points to why we will never eradicate poverty.
That society has an ethic for dealing With poverty, but lacks a personal responsibility towards care of the under-dog.

Governments best able to render poverty to its deserving place, “eliminated”, are corrupted by showmanship and self interest, exactly likened to those in the society who politicians represent.

If for example, public housing were built with the honest intention of relieving poverty, then the evidence for such consideration would not be the opposite to what it represents in truth. (Without elaborating).

Christ in his time, was surrounded by thieves and liars, many in influential positions. Even those in trusted positions such as Judas.

Best go to Deut 15:7-11, outside the Gospels for historic advice.

“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be...For the poor you will always have with you in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’" (Christ used this for his version of a similar edict).

NB: the trick here is to “lend” what excess you have, and give in that way.
Lending is inclusive, is the sense here. Inviting the poor into the fold, is the most beneficial towards eliminating poverty, as opposed to dealing with it indefinitely.

To lend the poor the money to buy their own accomodation would be a practical application of this, ...and so on.
The situation has become one in the case of public housing, to plunder the poor for profits through vaguely subsidised rents, a situation which assists bugger-all towards eliminating poverty!

Dan

ttbn,
I agree but, we do need to curb the utter incompetence of many senior bureaucrats whose antics only exacerbate the difficulties of very low income people.

individual,

Not sure how we curb any of the nitwits mucking everything up. Look at all the money that has been heaped on the 'aboriginal problem' without any result. As long as we have the same sort of people in politics and the public service as we have now throwing other people's money around nothing will change. Religious do-gooders like this one are no help, either.

Social workers & departments can't afford to get rid of poverty. If they did, they would be the new poverty dwellers. They are too inefficient & incompetent to ever be employed in a real occupation

If we could just get rid of all those social workers, & eliminate the cost of them to the community, there would be more than enough money to lift every no hopper out of their poverty.

Yup! What we just do not need are highly paid executives in this space or middlemen who take an admin cut. Some which are reportedly as high as 85%?

What we need is a completely different paradigm!

I mean, doing what you've always done while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

First cab off the rank is the outlawing of paper shuffling profit demandng middlemen! Mortgage brokers, insurance brokers, finance brokers etc-etc and commission sales for all manner of goods and services.

I mean these paper shuffling, profit demanding middlemen effectively double the cost of living or doing business/and the consequent creation of poverty!

Then there's this or that charity, the worse want a direct debit piece of your monthly salary forever.

Then there's price gouged energy!

There was a time when most of this legalised theft would have been unthinkable before we we encouraged to think like "aspirational individuals" Privatised all and sundry without a mandate?

Dismantled as much of cooperative capitalism/co-ops and the community spirit that gave them life?

Turned the third wealthiest nation on the planet and a creditor one at that into a debt laden basket case with record domestic debt and exponentially expanding record foreign debt.

Squandered mining booms one and two for very short term political outcomes at the expense of the national interest and again like most of the political decisions made in this country, never ever with a bona fide mandate!

Our political servants seem to believe they were elected to rule, as opposed to serving! Conequently the term nuclear power is a power source whose name cannot be mentioned!

Or fatously demeaned by folks whose actual knowlege of the technology could be written on the back of a postage stamp using a crowbar or a longer ponocio's nose, dipped in tar for a pen!

Ignoring as they always do, the central role of price gouged energy toward the creation of endemic generational poverty! TBC.
Alan B.