Who's to Blame? An Historical Study of Poverty

Poverty has been a much debated condition since the times of the Industrial Revolutions. Even before those times there has likely been the Haves and Have Nots. The exact root of the problem has never been determined exactly, but the theories over time have been very interesting. In the study of economics and government poverty is an interesting topic with a lot of historical significance.

1859 England: Samuel Smiles' Self-Help outlined the common thinking of the day. Poverty equaled moral failing. Only the lazy, the drunk, and the non-religious were poor. If you were hard working, practiced temperance, and were religious you should be able to provide to your family. Solutions at the time fell under the category of voluntarism. This measure was taken by middle class religious women (ex. Bible and Domestic Female Mission) who wanted to focus on improving the morals of the poor in hopes of helping them help themselves. The less desirable solution set by the government were the workhouses. When the poor could no longer afford to live on their own the government provided highly undesirable factory style communities (much like prisons) where families were split up and forced to work for their upkeep. The work was tedious and unpleasant, living conditions squalor, but it was all some could do to survive.

1889 England: Finally science gets involved in the issue of poverty. Two men, Booth and Rowntree, decided to study the working class in a book called Life and Labour of the People in London. For the first time the true conditions of the living and how they survive were exposed and the study of why chanced dramatically. Results showed that 30-35% of the population was below the poverty level. Their conclusion? Poverty was not a result of character weakness but instead of false social and economic conditions.

Early 1900's England: After the Boer War, which succeeded in proving the poor condition of the English working class, reforms began taking place. They attempted to clean up the housing and public health issues, but unfortunately those were only symptoms of poverty, not cures to end it. Luckily they did figure out something they could do. Curing unemployment through policies like the Workmen Act of 1905 (doing public works) and the Labour Exchange Act of 1909 (matching employers to employees).

1930's America: Studying poverty during the Great Depression would have been exhausting. Nearly 25% of the country was unemployed at any one point of time. A big difference for poverty now is that when it reached a large scale the government and people knew something had to give. No longer was laissez-faire governing acceptable and the people agreed that welfare was the best system to take place. With the election of FDR and his New Deal suddenly hope existed and some programs, such as the FDIC and social security have survived.

Post WWII England: All Aboard the Welfare State! With England in devastating condition after the war the people agreed that certain aspects and policies of a socialist state were desirable. Yet capitalism despite hard knocks was still desirable. The solution was to step back and allow some aspects of life to become nationalized. The plan was a stunning success. This time John Maynard Keynes took the stage with his goal of full employment of every able citizen. The Labour Party took control and created such policies as the National Insurance Plan and National Health service. Other help, like housing, old age benefits, and unemployment insurance.

Of course there is much more history to learn and more details that can be gone into than one blog should every contain. These were the major milestones though. To think we went from believing moral failings caused poverty (which many people still believe) to a more economic approach to the situation. The truth is there are steps that can be taken to ease poverty's burden and allow people enough to live on.