This was the British Prime
Minister, Theresa May’s response to TV journalist Andrew Marr when asked
whether it was right that nurses should have to use food banks.
Whatever the reasons the
use of food banks is rising. In 2008, the number of people using food banks was
just under 26,000. By 2017, that figure had risen to almost 1.2 million.
https://www.trusselltrust.org/news-and-blog/latest-stats/end-year-stats/ |
It is estimated that the
UK is the 6th largest economy in the World. It is a highly complex
and developed economy and yet the Office for National Statistics estimates that
around 6.5% of the population of the UK were in ‘persistent poverty’ in 2014.
This amounted to 3.9 million people, the 12th highest figure in the
EU.
In 2016, over 93,000
households were assessed as homeless in England, Scotland and Wales. The number
of people forced to sleep rough every night in England was 4,134, an increase
of 16% since 2015.
The United Kingdom has
persistent and long-term poverty leading to homelessness and hunger. The fact
that these figures are rising suggests that the underlying causes, whether
complex or not, are getting worse rather than better.
It is not overly
emotional to argue that it is a national disgrace that we have people, many of
whom are in work, forced to use food banks. Nor, is it rhetorical to describe
as a national disgrace that each night over 4,000 people are forced to sleep in
the streets. But, beyond this what does it say about the kind of society we
live in that we are growing accustomed to endemic poverty?
The United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights states in Article One that “All human beings are
born free and equal in dignity and rights.” The Declaration’s preamble starts “Whereas
recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of
all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace
in the world”
This treaty, to which the
United Kingdom is a signatory, could not be clearer that we recognise an
inherent dignity within human beings and commit to ensuring that all human
beings, regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other considerations are
entitled to be treated with dignity.
What this means in
practice is that Governments should not be indifferent to the suffering of
others or enact legislation which has the effect of dehumanising or
infantilising individuals. Josiah Ober argues that dignity is so important that
it should be considered as the third core value of democracy, alongside liberty
and equality. He says that to treat somebody in a dehumanising or infantilising
way is to undermine their dignity, and thereby to undermine one of the pillars
of democracy.
Homeless is on the increase |
The phrase mutual respect
is often used in the philosophical literature. Richard Sennett notes that there
is something reciprocal in respect that makes it mutual. It suggests that in
respecting others, we will be respected ourselves. Respect and being respected
clearly matters. Our certainty of our place in the World is shown, in part, by
the respect we receive and the fact that others want our respect.
This turns on how we
think of respect. In broad terms, we can describe respect as taking another
seriously. In the terms of Immanuel Kant, we recognise them as ends in their
own right and not just means. When we give money to somebody begging on the
street or donate to a food bank are we taking seriously the recipients? Are we
treating them as moral equals?
Just to be clear here I
am not arguing that it is wrong to give money to people or donate food or
indeed to be more pro-active in charity work. In a situation where 4,000 people
tonight have nowhere to sleep but the streets, giving them a couple of quid to
buy a hot drink or something to eat is the least those of us more fortunate can
do. My argument is that it has little to do with respect.
Part of the problem is
that the redistribution of our wealth to them is random. Most of us have a
limited budget on which to decide whether we can afford to give money or food
or not. This means that the money is entirely in our gift. It is an impulsive
act of kindness which benefits some random individual at the expense of others
who may be poorer or hungrier.
Those who give to charity
would no doubt, if they could, solve the problems that cause poverty, hunger
and homelessness. Random acts of kindness, whilst better than indifference, do
not solve the complex social problems, although they may alleviate some of the
symptoms.
By giving charity we are
not creating a situation where people’s dignity is maintained. We are not
engaging in an act of mutual respect. We are reacting compassionately to the suffering
of another, but that other is not our equal in any sense of the word. To be
reduced to a state of beggary is to be stripped of your personhood, of your
dignity, of your ability to give respect and to be respected.
In a situation of growing
poverty and its associated misery it is right that we are prepared to
redistribute wealth and one way of achieving this is by those of us who can
putting our hands in our pockets from time to time. But, unfortunately this
does very little to redistribute wealth from the richest to the poorest or to
increase the opportunity for the poor to gain the respect of their fellow
citizens. It does not allow for the poor to become fully functioning citizens
in their own right. In this way, rather than creating autonomous individuals we
foster, all be it unwittingly, a dependency culture and support growing wealth
inequality.
In 2016, according to
official statistics, the richest 10% of households in the UK held 45% of the nation’s
wealth. The poorest 50% owned just 8.7% of the wealth. This is not just a
British problem of course. In a report published by Oxfam just prior to the World
Economic Forum in Davos in January, it was estimated that the eight richest
individuals in the World (all men incidentally) were worth a total of $426bn
(£350bn), equivalent to the wealth of 3.6 billion people. Bill Gates, for
example, has personal wealth of $87 billion. Meanwhile, people in dire poverty
have to beg for the price of a cup of tea.
There is a strong moral
case for alleviating individual poverty. There are stronger political reasons
why we should care about structural poverty. Jewei Ci says that poverty has two
obvious effects. First it affects the subsistence well-being of those denied
biological needs for food, shelter etc. It is not the sign of a mature
democracy to have citizens in such dire circumstances that they cannot take
part in community life. But secondly, it also affects the psychological need
for respect.
What he has in mind is what
Stephen Darwall has called recognition respect. That is the recognition by our
peers that we are a person with interests and a life worth living. It also
affects the ability of people to take part in the reciprocal nature of mutual
respect. Not because people in poverty are incapable of respecting others, but
because their status is so low that they do not attract the respect of their
fellow citizens.
It is easy to lose sight
of the fact that many homeless, poor or hungry people have fallen through a
safety net, whose holes seem to get bigger and bigger. They are not without
status as a result of their own indolence, they are caught in a poverty trap
which they are unable to escape.
These problems cannot be
alleviated by the altruistic generosity of those who support charities. They
are structural and require structural changes to society in order to put the
opportunity to gain respect for every citizen before the interests of a tiny
minority to accumulate ever more riches. At the very least at the national
level it requires a government who rather than hiding behind meaningless
rhetoric about ‘complex causes’ make it a political imperative to do something
about inequality.
For those of us who are
not members of government, nor ridiculously rich, our options are more limited.
But there is a General Election taking place shortly in the UK. If we forget
about some of the side issues (such as Brexit and whether the leader of the
opposition is a ‘mugwump’) we should use whatever influence we can to raise the
issue of poverty on to the political agenda. This means using social media to
inform and question. It also means putting politicians on the spot when they go
door knocking or appear in public.
In the meantime, we
should continue to buy a couple of items extra in our weekly shop for the local
food bank, we should give money to desperate people when we are able to and we
should support the Big Issue sellers who are trying to escape poverty. But, in
doing these things we should not lose sight of the fact that what those in
poverty need is to be lifted from poverty, not simply have it alleviated.
Getting rid of poverty is
not complex, though it might prove to be difficult. It is a question of having
the political will to do so. When those candidates come knocking on your door,
why not make your question “what will you do, if elected, to end the misery of
poverty?”
References
Ci, Jewei (2013) 'Agency and other Stakes of Poverty' Journal of Political Philosophy, 21(2), 125-150
Crisis (2017) 'About homelessness'
Darwall, Stephen (1977) 'Two Types of Respect' Ethics, 88(1), 36-49
Equality Trust (2017) 'The Scale of Economic Inequality in the UK'
Kolnai, Aurel (1995) ‘Dignity’ in R S Dillon (editor) Dignity, Character and Self-respect (London: Routledge)
Ober, Joshia (2012) 'Democracy's Dignity' American Political Science Review, 106(4), 827-846
Office of National Statistics (2016) 'Persistent Poverty in the UK and EU: 2014'
Sennett, Richard (2003) Respect. The formation of character in an age of inequality (London: Allen Lane)
Trussell Trust (2017) 'End of year stats'
United Nations (2017) 'Universal declaration of human-rights'
References
Ci, Jewei (2013) 'Agency and other Stakes of Poverty' Journal of Political Philosophy, 21(2), 125-150
Crisis (2017) 'About homelessness'
Darwall, Stephen (1977) 'Two Types of Respect' Ethics, 88(1), 36-49
Equality Trust (2017) 'The Scale of Economic Inequality in the UK'
Kolnai, Aurel (1995) ‘Dignity’ in R S Dillon (editor) Dignity, Character and Self-respect (London: Routledge)
Ober, Joshia (2012) 'Democracy's Dignity' American Political Science Review, 106(4), 827-846
Office of National Statistics (2016) 'Persistent Poverty in the UK and EU: 2014'
Sennett, Richard (2003) Respect. The formation of character in an age of inequality (London: Allen Lane)
Trussell Trust (2017) 'End of year stats'
United Nations (2017) 'Universal declaration of human-rights'
Martin Treacy: Another very interesting post Dave. I am in strong agreement about the rapidly rising importance of inequality, and one of its consequences, poverty. (Your article was largely focusing on absolute poverty, those unable to find sufficient food or shelter without resorting to charity, and that is where the problem is writ largest, though there are many millions - a number which is increasing - who are feeling marginalized or on the edges of exclusion, even if they can just about feed themselves or pay the rent. Inequality is rapidly rising up the political agenda, and I think played a major role in Brexit, the election of Trump, and the rise of Le Pen in France. So it is starting to appear on the agenda, though in all three examples the responses are likely to result in a shift to a less compassionate and more unequal society rather than the opposite. So we urgently need political debate such as the issues raised on your blog to 'consciousness raise' the wider population so their electoral response can be (at least from my viewpoint) more effectively targetted!
ReplyDeleteInteresting point you raise about respect, and as a separate factor from compassion. You could I think argue that a truly compassionate response must involve also showing respect, though I do think your discussion is very useful in showing this different aspect. On a practical level, if I give something to a Big Issue seller, the quality of the interaction is (to my mind) at least as important, if not more so, than the material exchange. I always try and engage with the person, even if just for 30 seconds, and relate to them as a human and an equal (and with the implicit awareness that a different 'throw of the dice' could very easily have me in that position - I know John Rawls used to write about this, from the viewpoint of political theory, devising a polity you might choose if you had no idea what class you would be born into). I had an experience in Bulgaria two years ago where the 'kindness of strangers' was literally the only thing that kept me from a painful death. It left a deep impression about our interdependence (which our individualistic society tends to all too easily forget, at least for those of us who are - for now - at the fortunate end of the spectrum).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWSxzjyMNpU
ReplyDeleteFollow the Money (Richest peeps on the planet) and the rabbit hole gets deeper