Poverty and Wealth Essay

Submitted By beckyxoxo
Words: 1221
Pages: 5
Open Document
Poverty and wealth
Scottish Socialist Party Election manifesto 2011
[pic]
In a devolved Scotland the SSP is committed to implementing the following:
■ A new income-based Scottish Service Tax to replace the Council Tax.
■ The scrapping of domestic water charges, with household water financed via the Scottish Service Tax.
■ Special funding to enable Scotland’s 32 local authorities to recruit and train a team of welfare rights workers with special responsibility for identifying and assisting people who are failing to receive benefits to which they are entitled.
■ An expansion of locally-based money advice centres and credit unions.
■ A change in debt legislation to remove the threat of eviction and house repossession.
■ The extension of concessionary travel to carers.
■ The establishment of a cross-party working group, which would involve people affected by poverty and antipoverty organisations, to address poverty and inequality in Scotland.

We will also campaign for the following measures, which are not within the Scottish Parliament’s powers:
■ A basic state pension of £160 a week and the restoration of the link between pensions and earnings.
■ Restoration of benefits to 16 and 17 year olds.
■ The restoration of lone parent benefits slashed by Westminster.
■ A progressive tax system which will increase the top rate of taxation and reduce the tax burden on those on low incomes.
■ An overhaul of disability benefits to remove means testing.
■ The increase of all benefits by £30 a week with subsequent annual increases in line with inflation.
■ The regulation of banks and building societies to outlaw the practice of charging customers to access their own money, and charging customers who exceed their agreed overdraft limit, with refunds backdated five years.
■The protection of public sector pension schemes.
■ Carers Allowance to be replaced with the national minimum hourly wage rate.

■ Rigorous new laws to prevent big business avoiding legitimate taxation.
■ A new corporate tax regime which forces Scotland’s most profitable companies to pay their fair share of taxation, at least to Nordic levels.
■ A two tier VAT system, with luxury goods taxed at 20 per cent and VAT on all other goods reduced from 20 per cent to its 1979 level of 8 per cent.
■ Public ownership of North Sea oil with the profits used for the benefit of the people rather the profiteers.
■ A socialist Scotland that will stand up to the forces of neo-liberalism and the free market.
[pic]

Too poor to stay warm
Scottish government figures released this month showed 569,000 Scots households living in fuel poverty. The number has doubled since 2002.
Fuel poverty campaigners have reacted angrily to the news and attacked the failure of repeated government "initiatives."
They point to the fact that hese latest figures are for the year 2006-7 and do not take account of the gas and electricity price rises of the last 12 months.
In 2002, 13 per cent of Scots households endured fuel poverty, which is defined as those spending 10 per cent of their income on keeping warm. By 2007, this had leapt to 24.6 per cent.
Households now paying more than 20 per cent of their income on gas and electricity, a category that housing charity Shelter defines as people living in "extreme fuel poverty," now number 163,000.
Across Britain, the picture is much the same. Energy Watch estimates that 5.5 million households in Britain are living in fuel poverty.
With average combined gas and electricity bills now more than £1,300, it concludes: "There are millions of families who do not have that kind of money."

The question is, will the power companies try to disconnect those families unable to pay such sums this winter?
These are the circumstances behind the Scottish Socialist Party's decision to organise a day of action across Scotland on Saturday to draw attention to this intolerable situation. We will be campaigning on the streets of Glasgow, Edinburgh,
Show More

Related Documents: Poverty and Wealth Essay

Poverty: Wealth and Poverty Stricken Individuals Essay

personal beliefs on poverty; however, the primary purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the source of poverty and the real-life consequences of social policy in the U.S. .What does this video say to you about poverty stricken individuals in our society? Does this video challenge any of your assumptions about people who live in poverty, and if so, how? If it does not, in what ways do you think it might challenge some of society's stereotypes? Poverty affects every race, gender…

Words 1374 - Pages 6

Deaton On Health, Wealth, And Poverty

Program Review For this program review I listened to a podcast on www.econtalk.org. The podcast was called “Deaton on Health, Wealth, and Poverty.” I listened to it online, at my house, on November 18th. I choose this topic because it was an hour long program about the standard of living, helping poorer countries with health care, the GDP, happiness, and foreign aid. I thought this was a very good program to review because we talk about most of these topics in class and I wanted to get a better…

Words 2230 - Pages 9

Wealth: Poverty and Reading King Lear Essay

and Carnegie were still able to swallow up smaller businesses and basically run their industries. We can easily equate their dominance and evasion of the law with their wealth. In this case, power and wealth are interchangeable for power equals wealth and wealth equals power. If it had not been for their extreme power and wealth, Rockefeller and Carnegie would have easily been convicted of breaking the anti-trusts acts in place at the time. We recently covered this time period in My AP U.S History…

Words 571 - Pages 3

Poverty In The Other Wes Moore

Wealth is an abundance of something, whether this be money or love in your heart. Poverty is however the opposite of wealth, and although some are born into poverty, the gift of free will allows one to follow a path to wealth with determination and hard work. In the Other Wes Moore, a novel by Wes Moore, poverty is more heavily present alongside wealth as Wes Moore (author) and the Other Wes Moore (in prison) both have grown up in a financial poverty. In the SHC Community, there is an abundance of…

Words 430 - Pages 2

Essay on critical response

successful? According to Sowell, China is “lifting a million people a month out of poverty” by creating its own wealth. It’s not the Chinese government that is raising the country. In fact the government job consists in redistributing the wealth (created by the people) through taxes. China started to grow again when the capitalism system was adopt, and people had more opportunities to create their new wealth. This system isn’t new; other nations have used it before. The system is quite successful…

Words 355 - Pages 2

Huey P. Long Poverty

would end the conflict of wealth and poverty has displaced peace. Huey P. Long is one of those persons. In “Every Man a King” Long presents a solution that would benefit every individual not matter his/her economic status: “... We propose to limit the wealth of big men in the country… we propose to limit poverty that we will allow to be inflicted upon any men’s family.” (Long, para. 22). In the eyes of Long, if rich men have a fortune already, why not give a part of that wealth to people who in fact…

Words 749 - Pages 3

Essay about Lectures Review

STRATIFICATION Professor Milan Zafirovski An Introduction to the Study of Social Inequality MAIN CONCEPTS 1. Main questions in social stratification what is and why social inequality types of social inequality economic inequality--wealth and the rich in society political inequality--power and the powerful in society cultural inequality--prestige and status groups racial, ethnic, and gender inequality--race, ethnicity and gender in society conservation and/or change of inequality how to…

Words 2285 - Pages 10

Essay about Wealth and Net Worth

problem of income inequality and poverty is a big deal in the United States. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Most of the rich are the elderly 55 or over shown in this piece from the USA today newspaper article, “Nearly all additional wealth created in the U.S. since 1989 has gone to people 55 and older, according to Federal Reserve data. Wealth has doubled since 1989 in households headed by older Americans” (Cauchon). Most of the growing wealth as well has gone to older people…

Words 642 - Pages 3

Wealth Inequality In America Research Paper

that there has been a large rise in wealth inequality throughout America, which is not a good sign for the future, and could divide America in half if we don’t act soon. If you don’t know already, wealth inequality is when there are very large gaps between the lower, middle, and upper class when it comes to money, which results in economic issues for the community. This issue just seems so wrong and angers me, and I believe we should do something about it. Wealth inequality is a major issue that America…

Words 807 - Pages 4

Income Inequality In Australia

is the unequal distribution of money, this collective term covers income and wealth inequality. Economic inequality can destroy our society as it prevents economic growth and puts people in poverty. While economic inequality is definitely a negative, we should acknowledge why it occurs. Wealth inequality is the worst economic issue in our country. Data shows the wealthiest 20% of Australians own 60% of the country's wealth, whereas the poorest 20% own less than 1%. In that ratio, in a country that…

Words 696 - Pages 3