Poverty in a rich country: Glasgow's poor put every politician to shame

Glasgow's poor put every politician to shame | Kevin McKenna | The Observer: (Dec 2012)

"The reality of real poverty can be witnessed all over Glasgow this Christmas. The people who will suffer from its worst effects are simply, in the eyes of our chancellor, the people who live under the stairs. To him, they are beyond consideration while the Labour party long ago abandoned them.

We live in one of the most affluent countries in the world that possesses the larder of the Garden of Eden. No Scot should be living without food or heat. Every single one of the rest of us will, one day, be called to account for permitting this to happen."

Denial of citizen income creates poverty.

In many countries, poverty can be totally eradicated by paying citizen-ownership income. We, as citizens in our own countries, have voted for politicians who denied us our rightful citizen-ownership income.

We didn't have a choice. Nobody ever told us there was such a good deal. Even though the Alaska Permanent Fund and its annual dividend have been around for 30 years, hardly anybody outside Alaska has heard of it.

Times are changing. More and more politicians and citizens are now talking about this and offering this in party election platforms and citizen initiatives. Some politicians don't call it basic income or citizen dividend, but they are giving out monies. It is happening in Canada, America, Spain, Italy, European Union, Singapore, Argentine, Switzerland, Finland, India, Brazil, Namibia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, UK, and Australia.

It is up to us citizens to tell one another and to push for our rightful citizen-ownership income.