The Necessity of Poverty

John Bird, founder of the Big Issue, is determined to confront our investments in poverty: to show the ways in which so much of our culture, wealth and prosperity depends upon the existence of the poor, how the culture of poverty is appropriated for commercial gain, and how so many of our institutions have a vested interest in maintaining, not eradicating, poverty. There is much to agree with in this short, and often angry, book. Bird is a cogent exposer of moral hypocrisies on both the right and left of the political spectrum, from the nostrums of Christian charity through to bien pensant liberalism, and the autobiographical details that intersperse the argument lend weight to his observations.

Yet there are a number of problems here. Bird is surely right to point out the damaging effects of long-term unemployment and benefits dependency, but he is scathing of the potential for the state to alleviate poverty in either the form of higher taxes or welfare spending. The possibility of the state not as charity but employer is not explored, and in places Bird's argument resembles that of those who would abolish the remnants of the welfare state altogether. Furthermore, Bird's proposed solution to poverty is a form of ethical capitalism: in his words, 'If you don't like the gap between rich and poor, don't buy from the one percenters.' Yet what business, big or otherwise, can do without a bank account, and thus enriching the very 'one percenters' of which Bird is so critical?