The 'poverty lobby' uses the poor as a weapon in its war against free market economies, a 'permanent moral affront' used to flog civil society-Daley, UK Telegraph

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1/3/13, "Does the Left really want to end poverty?" UK Telegraph, Janet Daley

"The poverty lobby – as opposed to those who actually want to put an end to poverty – uses the "poor" as a political weapon in its ideological war against the market economy. That argument, which many of us have made over the years, is forcefully reiterated in an excellent post by Philip Booth of the IEA. As Professor Booth points out, the official campaigning groups which make use of the poor as fodder for their anti-capitalist rhetoric never seem to address the critical issue of the cost of living in their accounts of relative poverty, even though excessive charges for home energy, child care and housing 

(which are heavily inflated by taxation and government regulation) 

are among the chief drivers of household hardship.
 
Where, he says, is the argument for less regulation and more market competition which would really help poorer households by bringing down their costs? Nowhere in the prospectus of the poverty groupies do these get a mention. The campaigners prefer to preserve the poor as a permanent moral affront with which to castigate our callous capitalist society, instead of contributing to a useful discussion on the factors that are keeping people poor....

Nor can I recall them campaigning for tax cuts on the low paid: instead of allowing people to keep more of their earnings which would relieve their hardship and give them more independence, they clamour for the continuation of tax credits which subsidise (and perpetuate) low wages, and foster dependence on the state.

The statistical evidence of the past twenty years has become overwhelming: that getting a job is by far the best route out of poverty, that benefit dependency tends to turn temporary hardship into permanent poverty, and that free markets can deliver mass prosperity more effectively than any other form of economic system. It is time for the debate to move on. The old fashioned socialist dogma – that 

only the state can "lift people out of poverty" – is not just wrong. 

It is pernicious." via Lucianne

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