It has a lot to do with whether your economy as a whole is growing, or not.
To eliminate (or reduce) poverty by this definition in a way *which actually benefits the poor*, without significantly disadvantaging the vast bulk of middle income people, you can give the poor a proportionally greater share of any economic growth, by a variety of means depending on your political persuasion, such as some or all of the benefits system, the tax system, incomes policy, housing policy, state subsidy etc. Of course, you can also choose to disadvantage someone if you want to increase the rate of change. As usual with macroeconomic measures, this often has massive unintended consequences (c.f. the 1970s and the 1980s; both chose different approaches to trying to improve poverty; both were ultimately catastrophic for the poor).
Of course, if the economy is not growing, then you have to disadvantage someone to achieve improvements in relative poverty.
Over the last decade in Britain, the economy has been growing, and, as I understand it, the poor are relatively poorer.
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Date: 2008-01-31 05:33 pm (UTC)To eliminate (or reduce) poverty by this definition in a way *which actually benefits the poor*, without significantly disadvantaging the vast bulk of middle income people, you can give the poor a proportionally greater share of any economic growth, by a variety of means depending on your political persuasion, such as some or all of the benefits system, the tax system, incomes policy, housing policy, state subsidy etc. Of course, you can also choose to disadvantage someone if you want to increase the rate of change. As usual with macroeconomic measures, this often has massive unintended consequences (c.f. the 1970s and the 1980s; both chose different approaches to trying to improve poverty; both were ultimately catastrophic for the poor).
Of course, if the economy is not growing, then you have to disadvantage someone to achieve improvements in relative poverty.
Over the last decade in Britain, the economy has been growing, and, as I understand it, the poor are relatively poorer.