The Poverty Industry

The poverty industry is in the news again calling for handouts everywhere as part of their mission to get rid of poverty.

However they define poverty in such a way that if the top 50% of income earners were all made bankrupt, according to their logic there would then be no poverty in NZ as no one would then earn less than 60% of the median wage.

So called poverty measures like this come from the 1970s style socialist and even communist thinking that everyone should earn around the level of income, regardless of whether they are a brain surgeon or rubbish collector.

I certainly support policies which ensure families can afford food, power, education and healthcare. But I have no truck for those groups who think that everyone should earn the same, with minimal variation. Their focus is 100% on income redistribution and 0% on creating income.