11. Poverty

Hi, I’m Greg and I want to grumble about poverty, or about how as a society we talked too much about poverty – and then we stopped.

It seemed like a good idea in the early 1970s when a bloke called Henderson headed an inquiry which set a benchmark for how much income would be required to meet the basic needs of a family of two adults and two children. It was a narrow family stereotype (well, it was 40 years ago) but conceptually the idea of such a benchmark poverty line is not too different from what another bloke called Justice Higgins did way back at the start of the last century when he set a minimum wage that helped make Australia a more decent society – even if defined in masculine terms of a male bread-winner.

But far from shining a light on poverty in Australia, the poverty line generated endless debates. The academic ink flowed not just around the maths and methodology, but around whether poverty was defined by a set of basic needs or as relative to how much others in the society had.

The debate went on, until others pointed out that money was a narrow measure and there were a whole range of other social barriers holding people down. Education, class, race, sex and sexuality combined in various and often brutal ways to create disadvantage and deprivation, and it was clear that money alone was not the answer. And then it became too hard or just too old-fashioned to talk about poverty and the middle class focus went elsewhere – even though the poor were still poor and the gap between rich and poor was growing.

Sadly now, in anti-poverty week, those still wanting to highlight poverty can’t give you a simple answer as to what the poverty line is, or how many people are living below it. Instead they have to chant ritual incantations about poverty being multi-dimensional, and qualify statements and apologise in advance before talking about income levels. In highlighting the complexity of the problem, we robbed ourselves of the language to talk about poverty.

Of course education, class, race, sex, geography, health and a range of other things are important determinants of poverty, but I have a fairly strong suspicion that if you are missing meals or your electricity is cut off because you can’t pay the bills, or if you are trying to live on $35 a day on a Newstart allowance, lack of money is pretty fundamental.

So let’s talk about all the power structures, cultures and barriers that keep people poor, but show me the money as well! And let’s have a debate not about where or how to draw the poverty line, but about what to do about poverty in our rich country.

But until then, I am Greg, and I am grumbling.

This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast at https://radio.adelaide.edu.au/gregs-grumbles-11/

First Broadcast: 15 October 2013