Thursday, September 06, 2007

poverty in Ireland and Canada

We brought you the poverty figures for the USA and for Australia and now here we have the statistics for our Celtic Tiger neighbour , Ireland .
For a nation that is one of the most productive ( see here ) , we have nearly 290,000 people living in "consistent poverty" in Ireland , including one child in every 10 . Ireland is ranked by the agency as 19th worst among 22 EU nations for consistent child poverty.

"In a wealthy society like Ireland, access to high quality services should not be dependent on income," said Mr O'Kelly , acting director of the Combat Poverty Agency .

The worst affected were those not in a position to take up a job -- older people, carers, lone parents, children, the long-term unemployed and people who are sick or disabled.

A more recent EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions, from last year found that "almost one in five people" in Ireland remained "at risk of poverty"

[thanks to Michelle for drawing my attention to the Irish report]

And is it any better across the ocean in Canada ?

We have stats that show , according to the Toronto Star , the percentage of children in Canada and in Ontario living in poverty is higher than it was back in 1989. As well, the percentage of all Canadians in poverty is as high as ever.

In a country and a province so rich, so many Canadians are living in poverty – estimates run up to 5.3 million people. In Ontario, the child poverty rate is 17 per cent, or one in every six children. Food banks served 330,500 Ontarians in 2006.

Same all the world around -poverty and misery amidst abundance .

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

well said, it always seemed that the harder we worked and the more 'profit' we made for the bosses - the richer they got, and the poorer us workers get - whether in wages, high-unemployment, or lack of access to badly needed social services,etc.
The stats yet again prove it.
Not that this is a long-term answer anyways.
The more the governments who work almost exclusively in the interests of business - the more they even try to plaster over the cracks, no matter how much 'reforms' they bring in, or pressure groups call for- it will not work.
The only solution is an end to wage-slavery, two oppossing classes and producing useless things which are ruined, not given away - cos would interfere with 'market forces'.
International free socialism is a system under which loads of the unproductive work we do today would be seen with the scorn it deserves, instead of praise and status it gets now.
Its time for a mass of workers to realise we don't need leaders - and they have no special qualifications or indeed interest in making things better for us, quite the opposite.