Maggie's Farm

To answer the commenter from a Biblical point of view, relative poverty is all that God cares about and he cares about it a very great deal. The issue is about not leaving anyone behind, not abandoning those members of the community who have failed, and giving them the opportunity to get back on to their feet. God is very much in favour of wealth as such - that's the whole point of promising a land flowing with milk and honey - but he is very against some people having an abundance whilst others have nothing. Consider the classic parable of Dives and Lazarus, where there is no suggestion that Dives was particularly horrible to Lazarus, no suggestion that Lazarus was someone who had been sacked by him or anything like that - it was simply that there was poverty outside his gate which he ignored - and for this he is condemned to hell.

Now there is then a long discussion to be had about how this relative form of poverty is to be addressed, and there are right wing and left wing answers to be had (I prefer the right wing, small-state versions); there is in addition the emphasis upon personal responsibility, which is also Biblical. Yet there is an unavoidable element of luck involved in who gets rich and who gets poor - luck in terms of particular circumstances at the time, also luck in terms of background gifts and abilities, parenting, education and socialisation. When we take that into account, then the ability of one person to make a fortune whilst another collapses into penury is not simply a function of personal skill.

My grandfather was kept in the Allied POW camp near Auschwitz (ie not the Jewish camp). When they were first interned they were shaved completely over the entire body and given a standard batch of clothing and a red cross parcel with food and cigarettes; in other words the social environment was 'reset'. I remember him telling me that within two weeks there was a thriving economy - there were people who were successful, who had gained more resources, had accumulated cigarettes (= currency) and so on. Then there were others who had collapsed into poverty, who were starving etc.

This is human nature - but it is human nature that has fallen. We're called, not to exult in our fallenness but rather to mimic a gracious God who gives not from desert but from a generous heart. As the first epistle of John puts it "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?"

Um Marianne, I'd hate to be so rude as to 'tut-tut' back, but you don't seem to have read my comment properly.