A more caring society,

I’ve concluded that a more caring society based on the ethics of charitable giving will be insignificant for any long term change made to those in society most in need of charity.
So give that one a miss!.

What can make a difference to the increasing extent of poverty, is a charitable mindset which gives support to pressure on those who can make a difference to a growing impoverished underclass in Western Democracies, as a consequence of Government Policies geared against helping people escape a financial bind of insufficient income and limited to none, asset ownership. (Averagely 20% US, and probably similar in Au.,).

The most important contribution to the easing of poverty, can be achieved by land reform, and assisting with land ownership. The world leaders in land reform have achieved a percentage of landless population viiz. China 3% and Vietnam 12%.
(Based on a household defined as landless i) if it does not own any piece of land and ii) if at least one household member participates in the agriculturally-related activities).

So our enemy China, is the shining example of wealth distribution through land ownership. Communism. And conversely, our allies, notably the US, presides over the greatest inequality of its populations.

Makes one wonder!

Dan

Diver Dan- My understanding is that early in British history land passed from father to son and couldn't be traded away from the family- under a system of a type of primogeniture. This was a different to Communism in several ways...
1. No principle of "from those with the ability to those with need"
2. It wasn't an industrially based system in the modern sense.
3. Families were agrarian and isolated and self sufficient- rather than a part of a monolithic totalitarian infrastructure
4. Most of it's production was for it's own consumption.
5. If you wanted to live you had to do it yourself without the care of society- but also without most of it's interference.
6. it wasn't a global system
7. People made contracts with each other based on their own traditions.
8. etc

http://www.britannica.com/topic/land-reform/History-of-land-reform

CM

Yours is an incident where tradition became the oppressor. There are many other examples.
You make a very good point about the yoke of tradition and it’s plunder for resources against the weak members of society.
Excluding women from family inheritance was alive and well. True gender inequality! Thankfully, modern day Democracy forced a balance.

We should continue the fight for Democratic reform, which is a war which to this day plunders losers and rewards ruthless greed. Endemic inequality.

Under the urgency of the complete disaster of the current housing debacle, which leaves people from increasingly encompassing sections of society homeless, Nationalising tracts of land to be leased back, or resold for the National interest of housing it’s citizens, would not be unprecedented, even in Australia. Isn’t that the complaint of Aboriginal groups to this day?

The most urgent need at this moment, to ameliorate the housing crisis with its calamitous social outcome, is to stop the inevitable pressure on the housing stock immigration as a contentious offender is.

Law reforms which give Local Government the power to identify unused housing in their local area, and to force utilisation for its intended purpose.

A clamp down on short term leasing overseen by local Government. Rezoning.

Encourage an owner builder reform by assisting owner builders by reducing red tape, allowing families to live fir specified periods in temporary sub standard accommodation on their acquired blocks. A return to the kerosene tin shanty, but under official oversight, as strictly transitional.

A speeded up National programme of infrastructure development, geared towards housing the population, and reducing the pressure of speculative investment by steadily reducing the market values of the housing stock. A pressure which is destroying the peaceful society housing should be assisting.

What is the point of a society that not only can’t, but stubbornly refuses to implement reforms which seriously alleviate the pressures of unaffordability of a place to live for its citizens? Society is a lost cause!

Dan

Yes Dan, it would be nice if the council would let my daughter put a house along side mine, on my 20 acre block.

It wasn't only women that had less power under primogeniture- it was everyone that wasn't a first born son. But those that held the power were also burdened with a duty. It kept the hierarchy small so in a sense was less dictatorial than the modern world. The rulers were accessible to the ruled- it wasn't unusual for accidents to happen to tyrants.

Hasbeen.

Agreed. Gentrification of suburbia is the root cause of homelessness. NIMBY’ism.

Whatever the fix, it needs to be urgently attended to.

The stupid of your situation re; daughters housing need is added to by permissible caravans which are fire hazards, are opposed by zoning laws restricting much cheaper constructed conventional shelters.

Rural innovations have always been blocked by vested interests. Quite often on environmental grounds. Installing a simple septic system will cost around $20k after DA red tape.
How a vertical concrete pipe in the ground, translates into $20k, is beyond imagination, but so be it.

What this all translates into, is swathes of the population living in tents. It’s irresponsible neglect by Governments ( plural), with a total franchise of control, who are wilfully ignoring the problem of their own making. Red tape!

CM.
A time when life was cheaper than it is today, but I doubt if any less lawless!

Dan