Women were another vulnerable group because they were always paid at a lower rate than men. There was no safety net for people who fell into poverty other than resorting to the ‘workhouse’ which had been established to deal with cases of extreme poverty in Trade unions had little power as the Taff Vale Incident of 1901 showed and Friendly Societies could only provide a limited amount of help. Attitudes to poverty in the early 20th century were quite unsympathetic many politicians from both the Liberal and Conservative party felt that poverty came from personal laziness. Both parties had an attitude of “laissez-faire” i.e. non interference from the government.
Another idea related to this is the idea of predestination which was the view of the philosopher- John Calvin. Predestination is the idea that our lives are set/planned out previous to the start of our lives. Calvin said that man is “inherently evil and is not capable of good as his free will chooses to reject God”. Therefore, this suggests that God has predestined our lives as to those who will be saved and who will not. This further reinforces that we have no choice or influence on our lives and the events that happen, so therefore God will know the ethical decisions we will make as he has already predestined them in our lives.
The lack of motivation caused by years of not having a job and watching your family suffer in poverty is a condition that not too many of us are familiar with. “Native American Poverty,” by Tom Rodgers justifies the allegations that a large percentage, about 25%, of the Native Americans live in poverty. “According to the US Census Bureau, these Americans earn a median annual income of $33,627. One in every four (25.3 percent) lives in poverty and nearly a third (29.9 percent) are without health insurance coverage.” The lack of money has become a huge component in the dismemberment of the culture that the Natives so lavishly submerged themselves into, and the picking up other undesirable traits such as drinking. The
Compassionate reasons where one of the underlying reasons many historians argue upon the realise of the report on poverty from booth and rowntree in their study of the English town York , a town not normally associated with extreme poverty they found 29% of the population were well below the poverty line. Another reason was the very real fear workers were discouraged by the poor conditions and governments and may later turn against the government and form mass strikes or in serious cases rebellion or join the communist groups within Britain. Political self interest was high on the liberal’s agenda many historians argue. The franchise was being extended to the average man slowly and the liberals realised the average man did not benefit much from the government’s approach to peoples life’s and with the rise of the labour party and other parties many historians argue that it was out of desire to be re-elected that the liberals slowly brought about this change in reform. They didn’t get a majority government in 1910 like they did in 1906 which led them to think that social reform was the way to gain votes.
“FAO Director- General Jacques Diouf commented in September of 2011 that the international community’s response has been “delayed and inadequate” (Africa Renewal, 2011) Africa is known to be one of the least developed continents in the world at the moment. Famines have struck greatly throughout its years such as the severe lack of food in Ethiopia during the ‘80s. The lack of surprise of the famine in Somali nation was the reason for such a slow response. “Famine in Africa is not a recent phenomenon.” (Africa Renewal, 2011) The United Nations should not use that as their excuse. As a global congress their job is to help every nation and every state as soon as possible with no bias judgment.
As Strayer, Gatzke, and Harbison state in their textbook The Course of Civilization states “The basic trouble was that very few inhabitants of the empire believed that the old civilization was worth saving… the overwhelming majority of the population had been systematically excluded from political responsibilities. They could not organize to protect themselves; they could not serve in the army… Their economic plight was hopeless. Most of them were serfs bound to the soil, and the small urban groups saw their cities slipping into an economic decline.”(DBQ 2, Doc 1) What these men mean is the majority of the people (which were poor serfs) were excluded from political responsibilities. In addition, they could not protect themselves or serve in the army mainly because they were too poor (in order to be in the army, the people had to be wealthy) and the urban patricians saw their city fall into an economic downfall. What also led the downfall of the Western Roman Empire were the rise of Christianity and the large size
The first principal was developing discrepancy which explains developing cognitive dissonance by saying “I hear you telling me your situation is important and at the same time I hear you telling me reasons why you can’t do anything about it so let us talk about how that’s working for you because it’s really important for you to do something different”. The second principal was avoiding argumentation which is pretty straight forward. Arguments are counter-productive and defending breeds’ defensiveness. Resistance is a signal to change
As reported by Mary Clare Jalonick on NBCnews.com, “Kevin Concannon, USDA undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, says his agency has seen some people — especially those who are recently unemployed — breaking down in tears as they registered for their benefits, never expecting they would have to receive government assistance”(5/19/2010). Paired with the adoption of the EBT system, the day-to-day transactions under the SNAP program are less conspicuous, reducing the discomfort of purchasing. This welfare stigma associated with Food Stamps, as explained by Christine K. Ranney in Cash Equivalence, Welfare Stigma, and Food Stamps, is directly related to the unequal demand for cash versus non-cash-equivalent stamps (1025). In other words, the restrictive nature of the SNAP benefits doesn’t completely eliminate the stigma of restrictive purchasing. The inherited good feeling of buying goods without restrictions is missing from these transactions, but the fact of the matter is that having a way to supplement family income can trump any other aversion to the program when the need is high enough.
Indisputably, workers who shoulder the burdens of family should have the priority to be supported by society. However, regardless to the fact that they may end up losing their jobs, a primary question should be considered: does raising the minimum wage really affect workers who are supporting their families? Ironically, it doesn’t. Thomas Sowell, an American economist who was awarded the Bradley Prize for intellectual achievement in 2003, has demonstrated in his article “The Living Wage kills Jobs” that in every 5 workers, there’s less than one person who has a family to support (par. 8). The four people remained should be accounted mostly by teenage workers.
Chartism being the radical movement the working class never really brought in the next tiers support. Once Chartism got a stigma for its actions like the Newport rising in 1839 where 20 deaths occurred, the little support from the middle class was withdrawn. Source O gives reason for the middle class not to be taking Chartism seriously as it states the chartist cry ‘Cheap Bread’ when looking to gain suport which is not concern of any class other then the working class as they lacked bread due to economic depression. This shows actual support for the knife and fork question as it shows Chartists are trying to gain support from the means of cheap food in the troubled economy, however, it is important to not forget it also gives reason the middle class not wanting to get involved as they see Chartism is not serious and therefore also lowers the short term significance of the knife and fork question in the failure of