The Victorians coined the terms the
"deserving poor" and the "undeserving poor", to differentiate between those that deserved help in their hour of misfortune and those who brought it upon themselves.
Today, for the most part, we are living in times that only recognises the "undeserving poor" as a reality ie. those that are poor because they are lazy, because they haven't saved for their old age/sickness, they haven't worked at achieving an adequate standard of education etc.
This is an
ideological belief, as its used to maintain an exploitative domination.
Anyone would think we lived in a meritocracy
The deserving poor we sanctimoniously declare to be exclusively found in the 3rd world, Africa and those sorts of places. The places we help to keep poor. The ones that are drowning as we speak trying to get to Europe. They, perhaps, deserve our help - but not too much.
One of the interesting things Muhammad Ali aspired to was a situation whereby blacks could be granted their own land within the US. The more I think about it the more this makes sense - only I believe it should apply to all the disposessed, not just the black community. As Ali put it, if you don't own your own land and resources you are in no position to provide for yourself and so are, by necessity, forced into the humiliation of going back to your overlords with cap in hand.
This is the position of those today claiming unemployment benefits.Meanwhile, in my country,
one half of all the land is owned by around 500 people. Being as the nations population is circa 5 million, that 500 constitute around 0.01% of the total population. A meritocracy, you say ? When the land is owned by the same 21 families it was 200 years ago ?
The truth that is staring us in the face, that dare not speak its own name - that there is nowhere near enough work to go around, there hasn't been for a long time, and that the situation is only going to get worse - is
not on the political agenda at present. Its hush hush.
Instead of humiliating and impoversihing people how about we either give them their own land and resources or give them a Universal Basic Income that would not only give people a decent life (with choices) but also take away the stigma of, well, existing at all ?