Shonga,
Complicated question.

Firstly, 4.9% unemployment doesn’t imply 95.1% employment. The unemployment rate counts the unemployed as a percentage of the labour force, which is people willing and available to work. Only 65% of the adult population is in the labour force, and the poor are disproportionately represented in the remaining 35% - retirees, the sick and disabled, single parents and others who, for whatever reason, can’t work.

Secondly, employment includes people on temporary and casual contracts and those in part-time work. I think the growth of this type of employment has on balance been a good thing, because most people who work these arrangements do so by choice (I’m guessing you’ll disagree). But a minority are taking this type of work because they can’t get the permanent full-time employment they’d prefer, and for these, the labour market is not delivering what they want or need.

I’m not denying that there are poor households with full-time workers, but they are a minority of poor households.

So some approaches to solving poverty can include:

1. Address rectifiable causes of exclusion from the labour market (‘poverty traps” in the tax system, tax breaks for child care, re-training from declining skills, English language classes for migrants, removing labour market regulation shown to discourage employment of marginal workers, helping injured or disabled workers find suitable employment if they are able);

2. Improve income security for retirees (e.g. encourage voluntary superannuation contributions)

3. Invest in education – a long-term solution, but education is one way of helping kids escape inter-generational poverty

4. Target welfare benefits better – this government has increased spending on welfare to record levels, but a lot of the money goes to the relatively well off.

5. Make sure governments deliver their core responsibilities in the provision of social infrastructure and public goods.

No cultural ignorance at all YngN. Fact is that plenty
of surveys have shown that many women in Africa would like
to have access to better family planning etc. They are
fighting the Bush regime and the Catholic Church all
the way, who think that abstinence is the answer to
everything. Doesent work in the real world. If we in
the West don't provide the funding, then they can't
afford it, its that simple. Instead we send boatloads
of food, try to stop family planning in many places,
then wonder why they have a problem. Sheesh...

If only 1-2 kids survived, then the population in the
poorest areas of Africa would not be growing that fast,
even you can work that out.

Note I mentioned "choice". The Catholics are even against
the snip, male or female.

Dickie no chauvanistic comments at all. Fact is I said
all women should be provided with a "CHOICE". Men
too, if thats your issue, but clearly its women who
are left holding the babies so to speak, they have a far
larger problem then men. Look at the Congo, millions
raped, dodn't you think ALL those women deserve help and
a choice?

SHONGA “trade” is a serious source of wealth creation and distribution for everyone who participates in it. However, in the context of an entire human life experience, “trade” will only account for part of that experience and “free trade” can not be expected to resolve everything.

Other freedoms are equally and more critical such as freedom of choice in

The numbers of children we produce and are responsible for (I had a vasectomy after the second).

The freedom to acquire skills and benefit from their deployment.

Free participation in fair elections for a government of our choosing and not some despot of any political hue or participation limited to some preordained tribal, caste or class group.

With freedom comes responsibility and that responsibility is to work within the limits of ones resources. In western terms we call it “budgeting”.

Some other posters here are saying similar things to me, yabby and colinsett and with which I entirely concur. The developed world is at zero population growth and “stable”. The poorest nations are exploding thanks, in part, to the efforts of developed nations to reduce child mortality rates. There is no point in vastly improving the numbers of children if the resources available are insufficient to support a “quality of life”.

SHONGA, happy to debate anytime. Respect your right to hold a contrary view. To gain support for any view, the easiest way is to promote its comparative merits.
Cheers

Yabby

Your'e right! The women in the Congo do need help.These women pay dearly for being raped whilst the perpetrator freely moves on to impregnate or infect his next victim!

The point I am making is that uneducated women often fail to take the pill or are unaware of their monthly "fertile" period. Even educated westernised women get this wrong!

India was given free contraception decades ago and it didn't work!
I give little credence to the current effects of "birth control" or "family planning" in the poorer nations.

However, effective birth control is essential and one must seriously consider the inclusion of the more than equal benefits of vasectomies which, unlike other methods, comes with a guarantee. This procedure is less than a morning or afternoon procedure and it is REVERSIBLE! And at the risk of riducule may I suggest that men initiate sex more than women!

Increasing vasectomies in third world countries will more assuredly reduce the number of children born with HIV. The current birth control programmes have not and I've yet to learn of any programmes strongly recommending vasectomies!

Vasectomies will more assuredly result in fewer children, fewer mouths to feed, fewer abortions and more ability for men and women to exit the poverty cycle to seek a better education - providing the religious cease indoctrinating the masses and the despicable actions of despotic rulers are addressed!

Governments occasionally withold aid from other nations for different reasons. Strangely, a lack of endeavour by other governments, to curb population explosions is not, I believe, one of them!

Dickie, the snip should be available for both genders, when
they want it. Thats the point, its not happening. IIRC
it was BBS Panorama that went into all of this. A woman
in the Philipines, after 8 kids pleaded to have the snip.
Nope, it was a Catholic hospital, not possible. etc.
Its crazy stuff!

In India they had a huge campaign for the snip, but the
Catholic Health minister of the time put a stop to it.
So the story goes, throughout the 3rd world and its
a scandal.

Family planning includes the snip, male and female.
Just give people these choices, choices they don't have
now, thats my point.

No point trying to solve poverty, until you get some
of these basics right. Boatloads of food will mean
just even more people to feed, as in Ethiopia and elsewhere.

rHIAN.
nOW YOU ARE BEGINNING TO MAKE SOME SENSE TO ME, THANK YOU i AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY ON SOME OF THOSE SOLUTIONS.