Poverty Issues

[Irrev-Black]

Here's a thread for discussion of poverty, whether that be international, onshore, or centred on a sector of the community.

Causes, means of relief, narratives, observations: they're all on topic here.

[Irrev-Black]

The free calls available on public phones in Australia are seeing a large number of calls to support services and Centrelink.

More than 23 million free phone calls were made at Australian public payphones in the past 12 months. Many of those calls (359,000) were made to helplines and support services like Lifeline, Headspace and the Salvation Army.

Emergency services and Centrelink's reporting line also received a large volume of calls.

Teresa Corbin, chief customer advocate for Telstra, says the data reflects the cost-of-living pressures that have intensified since the free calls were made available two years ago.

"People really depend on Telstra payphones because they're a lifeline. During the last year we've seen a surge of more than 5 million extra free calls from payphones. They [Australians] are contacting people when they're in a crisis. They are also people who are homeless who are dependent on them."

I don't have a lot of nice things to say about immense companies, but good on Telstra for this, at least.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/how ... /a5vhrdebo

[Irrev-Black]

From the birdsite:

ACOSS
@ACOSS
MEDIA RELEASE: ALP Conference backs Jobseeker policy to lift people out of poverty as unemployment increases.

The Albanese Government must now listen to party members and #RaiseTheRate to adequate levels to ensure people can afford to live.

https://www.acoss.org.au/media_release/ ... increases/

Antipoverty Centre
@antipovertycent
If people in poverty don't want to be in poverty... voters don't want people to be in poverty... ALP delegates don't want people to be in poverty... then why does the ALP caucus, expenditure review committee and executive government want people to be in poverty?

A bloody good question, and I hope there's an answer that doesn't involve waffle.

FFS, cancel a submarine or two!

[Irrev-Black]

There's a petition on the House of Reps site, that I support and commend:

Petition EN5308 - Investigate the merits of all Australians having Universal Basic Income.

Petition Status - The petition is currently open for signatures



Petition Reason
Universal Basic Income is an unconditional, universal, periodic cash payment to every adult in a society, regardless of circumstances. It can better meet Australians’ welfare needs than our combined programs of targeted, means-tested income support. The latter require a vast bureaucracy to administer programs and assess claimants, and make vulnerable people negotiate complex, arduous processes to access support. We end up with a costly, inefficient and ineffective system that, by trying to avoid a few getting help they don’t need leaves many needing help they don’t get, while stigmatizing those that do. Further, we waste resources trying to patch up downstream impacts – harmful society-wide effects of poverty and insecurity – instead of just preventing them in the first place.

UBI – understood simply as one’s share of the common inheritance, rather than welfare or charity – removes the stigma from income support, while assuring everyone of the same, secure foundation upon which to build their lives. UBI is an upstream investment in human capital with high ROI (e.g., every dollar spent reducing child poverty returns ~$8 economic benefit), yielding more in savings and benefits than it costs. Across many trials worldwide, benefits consistently include: Financial: more savings, home ownership. Health: improved physical and mental health; reduced hospitalization. Education: improved learning, graduation rates, earnings. Crime: reduced crime, DV. Employment: steady labour supply; increased self-employment, entrepreneurship, productivity. Trust & social cohesion: increased trust in government, interpersonal trust.

LINKY

[stylofone]

Waleed Aly gets into the concept of rent seeking and why it's bad. I have lots of other thoughts. Firstly, most "workers" also produce nothing of actual value. The definition of productivity is flawed not only because rent-seekers are exempted from contributing to society, but because those that are not exempted - the workers - are valued because they are successful in a capitalist economy. They're not valued because they actually do anything of value, e.g. the completely useless head of strategic marketing gets paid more than the midwife or the fruit picker or the person who repairs the air filter to stop you getting covid.

The other thing is that silicon valley industries like google, amazon and facebook are built around the idea of disrupting existing industries and replacing them with ones where they are rent-seekers with powers beyond the wildest dreams of the worst landlord ever.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/in-aust ... 5dz4w.html

[Irrev-Black]

A bit of well-deserved discomfort to the grocery profiteers.

[Irrev-Black]

While Jim Chalmers makes dubious claims about the indexed rises to payments, that would have had to happen because they're governed by law, as if the ALP was being generous...

Australians on fixed or lower incomes are skipping meals and going without medicine, with new research revealing a “poverty premium” is being paid for essentials like petrol and groceries.

As the Albanese government faces pressure to pass a much larger expansion in the social safety net, Anglicare Australia has published a report showing key living costs are pricier for the poorest households.

Australians on lower incomes are spending up to 10 per cent more on petrol, up to 20 per cent more on energy and up to 93 per cent more on groceries, according to the Anglicare analysis.

The combination of these acute cost pressures for both transport and food is taking a particularly heavy toll, according to Jason Haines, an executive officer at St John’s Care, which provides food assistance to vulnerable Australians.

“The issue is people can’t even come to get the free food,” he said.

“With these petrol costs, they want free food but they can’t get in here to get the free food.”

Haines said Australians are also going without medicines to treat their chronic conditions.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/fina ... -pressure/

And workers are being given the "never had it so good" line, too:

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There won't be a way out of this mess till somebody admits things are not as good as claimed.

The two-party (sort-of) system is fucked.

[Irrev-Black]

While Jim Chalmers makes dubious claims about the indexed rises to payments, that would have had to happen because they're governed by law, as if the ALP was being generous...

(SNIP)

First Dog has some comforting words...

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[Irrev-Black]

Massah wants you to know your place.

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... eoliberals

[Irrev-Black]

Church of Jeff
@jeffowski@mastodon.world

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Sep 14, 2023, 11:08 · · 58 · 2

If I *must* use a self-checkout, I promise to keep generating errors that require staff intervention, thus creating paid work and just possibly diverting attention from those who need to creatively use the checkout.