Capitalism creates poverty - its official!

Capitalism is an economic system, based on greed, which ignores the needs of people. It creates wealth for a tiny minority and poverty for the vast majority. It can never, and will never, eliminate poverty, and it is pointless New Labour pretending that it can. In fact, the New Labour government, which has slavishly followed an socially irresponsible, rapacious free- market capitalist model, has increased the gap between rich and poor and has increased poverty, and reduced equality and social mobility.

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that data released yesterday by the Department of Work and Pensions showed that child poverty and pensioner poverty is increasing - not diminishing. So another New Labour flagship policy bites the dust! Ultimately, we have to judge people by what they do - not what they say. New Labour has claimed to reduced poverty whilst pursuing free-market policies which increase poverty.

But it also has to be asked - why all the fuss about child poverty? Does that mean it is ok for adults to be poor? - I don't think so. Children live in poverty because their parents are poor. Take the adults out of poverty and you take the children out too! The parents of children in poverty are not unemployed. They work for a living. They are poor because they don't get paid enough for the work that they do - it is as simple as that. The people that employ them cream off the wealth for themselves. That is exploitation - the bedrock of free-market capitalism.

Instead of using taxpayers hard earned cash to subsidise the the wealthy and shareholders by paying the poor tax credits the government should be increasing the minimum wage, which at the moment is well below the poverty level, to at least 60% of the median UK wage. We also need a massive increase in pensions to raise the elderly out of poverty - £5 billion of pension credit was left unclaimed last year.

Remember - every time you eat in a restaurant or stay in a hotel your enjoyment is being subsidised by the poverty of the people who work there............ the Sex Pistols said it years ago in Holidays in the Sun - "Cheap holidays in other people's misery".