Inequality. It pisses me off. While it is true I’m no Nigel Latta fan, that is not the reason I am pissed with inequality but the show really didn’t help.
So for what its worth if you didn’t see Nigel Lattas show, I wouldn’t bother. If you are on this blog you are already familiar with the discourse. On the heels of the Spirit Level and Max Rahbrookes latest efforts it adds nothing to the conversation. It is the same statistics in a different different wrapping. The only difference being that it makes the subject palatable to a larger audience. That worked. Latta was able to present the information to the main stream and use his popularity with the patronising and patriarchal to get the conversation into the homes of people who might be more inclined to Kiwiblog. People are still talking about it a week later. Inequality is back on the table again but you see that’s the part that I don’t like. Thats what pisses me off.
‘Inequality’ is palatable in this form because it puts the working poor on the table without anyone having to give up their privilege. You can talk about inequality without feeling bad because it brings the middle class the working class and the working poor together. We are all poor in that context. We are just a couple of paycheques off living on the street.
Like the student in Lattas show. Poor, poor Lucy. Unable to find a job after six months and relegated to living in her parents home deep in the leafy burbs. No disrespect to Lucy but let me be blunt. She isn’t living in poverty. That’s the problem with inequality.
Talking about inequality sets up a frame work where everyone can be talking about poverty without thinking about the real poor. I mean the poor poor. I hate a discourse that encourages us to distinguish between the working poor and those other poor. Thats right the ones that the Lattas inequality discussion failed to mention. Those on a benefit. So if they are on a benefit and separate from the working poor…what are they then? By implication if you are not the working poor then you are ….the lazy not working un-deserving poor?
This week Auckland Action Against Poverty will have around forty volunteers from throughout New Zealand camped outside the Community Link office ( thats WINZ latest incarnation) in Mangare Town Centre. Over the next three days the volunteers will be helping the people that didn’t appear on the telly. People that are struggling to feed their families, living in garages, and working really hard at the day to day struggle of surviving. This is the third of these “Impact” actions and the expectation based on previous years is that in three days they will look to assist over 300 people.
Thats who will be there.
Who wont be there? Nigel Latta and his camera crew.
Kate Davis is completing her B.A English & politics. Previously she has worked for the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective & currently volunteers as an advocate for Auckland Action Against Poverty.
It’s interesting, your comment about beneficiaries being semantically cast into a sub class (of the poor), as if to imply that they do not work to survive, which, when having to meet the ‘requirements’ of reporting, job seeking, certificate producing, budget analysis etc is not exactly the case.
The semantics precipitate the de-humanisation of those with little to bray about already.
I agree. The requirements for reporting are rapidly becoming untenable resulting in sanctions and people being left with no money. I recently met someone who attended three WINZ meetings, disputing a $3.50 deduction that should have been stopped months ago.
Awesome Kate. Awesome.
You deserve a medal.
So so many poor.
What exactly will you be doing?
Feeding them?
Supermarket vouchers?
Love?
Advocacy?
Shelter?
How will you be helping?
There are so many destitute people in NZ right now, and getting worse. How do you exactly help them?
Blessings for you and your great efforts.
Kate:
I just want to know where to start – how to start.
I have tried the providing soup for the public – but many people won’t take food off a stranger.
And just working on doing vege soup and a roll at a school twice a week.
But if you have found a way to do this better then please advise, I really would like to know where do you start?
If you’re in trouble, or hurt or need – go to the poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones.
I hear you, and I’m with you on not being able to take Latta’s “let me explain this to you nice and simple” style of presentation.
But in all honesty I do see a need for the moniker ‘working poor’ – and that is that it really highlights to all those Bill English types that people can work very hard in this country and still end up barely being able to eat, have a roof over their head, or support children. You can work full-time but wages are so low and the cost of living so high that you’ll still be poor; you won’t be able to save, pay off debt, you won’t reap the benefits of your hard work other than the ‘privilege’ of being able to get up and face another day of work. Even though it may have some downsides, I think on the whole highlighting that this is a very real part of NZ is worthwhile.
Sure. I agree. My last job paid minimum wage. Wages are ridiculously low. But why leave those people on benefits out of the equation? It is a deliberate choice and a divisive way of manipulating the discourse.
Which raises the question, who does it serve to present the issue in this way?
Good souls all of those commenting.
I grew up from 1944 and basked in the glory of a warm caring country full of egalitarian sharing of our common wealth.
It was a time when we felt a strong sense of belonging, but today I am saddened to see the generation today will not ever sense what I had as a young child.
We need to rid this government who idolises the rich and ignores the needs of the poor.
As we go forward to this election my average kiwi semi poor pensioner heart goes out to you all who need a hand up and hope the will of the people prevail to bring a new era of humanity where all feel a belonging.
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