Inequality in the UK is now so extreme that the five richest
families are wealthier than the bottom 20 per cent of the entire population,
according to Oxfam. Meanwhile, the housing charity Shelter predicts that 93,000
children will be homeless this Christmas, as the number of homeless families
trapped in temporary or emergency accommodation exceeds 60,000.
An estimated 18 million will start 2015 carrying credit card
debt, owing an average of £2,729. Up to eight million Brits are still paying
off debts from last Christmas, as household incomes fell for the third year in
a row during 2014. Figures from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation show that one in
five of working-age adults without children were also living in poverty. Real
wages are also falling: among the lowest paid 25 per cent, pay has fallen by
40p an hour for women and 70p an hour for men.
As 2014 draws to a close there are 13 million people in
poverty – including 27 per cent of the 2.5 million children in the UK,
according to the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).
Alison Garnham, chief executive of CPAG, said: “Thousands of
families will be panicking about not having money to get by, rather than panic
buying this weekend. “Clobbered by low wages, soaring housing costs and real terms
cuts in benefits, these households have taken the biggest austerity cuts and
don’t have a margin for festive extras.”
Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation, said “The biggest group of people who are poor are in work and
renting. That gives us a new insecurity in this country.”
The Trussell Trust warned it is expecting its busiest
Christmas ever in providing emergency rations – with one million people now
relying on food banks run by the charity and other organisations. Trussell
Trust chair Chris Mould. “At Christmas time, when people will be spending more
than they have ever done before, we have also tens of thousands of people who
haven’t got enough to buy food for themselves and families.”
Did you know that 65 percent of all children in the United
States live in a home that receives welfare. This year, almost one out of every
five households in the United States will go through the holiday season on food
stamps. One recent survey found that about 22 percent of all Americans have had
to turn to a church food panty for assistance.
Christmas is a time for children and we all forget the old
and lonely. Half a million pensioners were thought to have spent Christmas in
bed in 2010 just to keep warm. An Age UK spokesperson said: "Winter can be
a very lonely time for some older people, as the cold weather makes it more
difficult to get out and about. But if then at home, they are also reduced to
extreme measures such as living in one room or staying in bed all day to try
and keep their heating bill down, winter can become a truly miserable
time."
In the Chinese city of Yiwu 60% of all the world’s Christmas
decorations and accessories, from glowing fibre-optic trees to felt Santa hats.
The “elves” that staff these factories are mainly migrant labourers, working 12
hours a day for a maximum of £200 to £300 a month. The Yiwu International Trade
Market, aka China Commodity City, is a 4
million square metre wonder-world of plastic tat, declared by the UN to be the
“largest small commodity wholesale market in the world”. It’s now losing out to
internet giants like Alibaba and Made In China. On Alibaba alone, you can order
1.4m different Christmas decorations to be delivered to your door at the touch
of a button. Yiwu market, by comparison, stocks a mere 400,000 products.
Perhaps we can all reflect on the stories of over-stretched
food-banks and start demanding an end to the intolerable poverty around the
world. Christmas is a sad season for the poor. It is a time for giving – a time
to buy gifts for family and friends and helping the unfortunate. There are food
donations for the food bank, and campaigns of all kinds to help those in need,
including toy drives. It is a good-hearted thing people do. But the issue of
poverty is not going to be solved by a once-a-year campaign. The best they can
hope for and goal, is to to do away with such need for charity. Before you sit
down to open presents or enjoy a holiday feast tomorrow or at some other point
over the coming days, take a moment to think about the case for socialism
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