Welfare State

Instead of an ownership society, we are evolving into a society of mortgage debtors, corporate debtors and government debtors. And as far as the supposed savings (“financial ownership”) are concerned, John C. Bogle has observed that instead of the economy being dominated by individual investors , it is being financialized into “an intermediation society dominated by professional money managers and corporations.” This trend “has not been accompanied by the development of an ethical, regulatory and legal environment … The ownership society is over.

According to the statistics from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the number of under-25s without a job for a year or more increased from 266,000 in 2012 to 282,000 in September 2013, The Daily Mirror reported on Saturday.

Last year’s figure is just under the 285,000 recorded in 1993, when John Major was British Prime Minister.The post UK’s long-term youth unemployment hits record high appeared first on BSNEWS.

King wanted the government to eradicate poverty by providing every American a guaranteed, middle-class income—an idea that, while light-years beyond the realm of mainstream political conversation today, had actually come into vogue by the late 1960s.The post Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Solution to Poverty appeared first on BSNEWS.

That the funds the government already spends on antipoverty programs, if cashed out, would be more enough to raise everyone above the official poverty line.

The news that Switzerland will hold a referendum on a proposal to provide every citizen with an unconditional grant of 2,500 Swiss francs a month (about $2,800) has sparked renewed interest in the old idea of a universal basic income (UBI).

Inequality permeates the social system, taking multiple forms, themselves integrated, because the essential capital-accumulation process requires invidious distinctions, actualized in terms of power arrangements, across the board.

On Friday, a group of young Stratford mums occupied the East Thames Housing Association building (and showroom) and Newham council's housing offices as part of their ongoing fight for decent social housing in Newham.

In crucial ways – the scale of its attacks on social security, service privatisation and falling living standards for the majority – Cameron's coalition has outdone even Margaret Thatcher. Its austerity programme halted recovery for four years and has cut most people's real terms pay deeper and over a longer period than at any time since the 19th century.

Channel 4's attempt to stereotype and demonise all of Britain’s 2.49 million unemployed by focussing on just 6 carefully chosen people and showing them in the worst possible light in their programme Benefits Street last night was so successful that Twitter exploded with threats of violence and even death against the participantsThe post Threats of death and violence after Channel 4 programme Benefits Street appeared first on BSNEWS.

On the same day that the government announced it was scrapping the £180-million-a-year Social Fund for the destitute, a new survey showed that the big US internet companies operating in Britain have increased their UK sales last year by 18 per cent but paid even less tax to the Treasury than the year before.The post Tory Priotities Writ Large appeared first on BSNEWS.