Poverty

This was posted on MSN today;

'Young people believe poverty is one of the key reasons behind the August riots, according to a new survey.

Behind the Riots, a survey commissioned by The Children's Society, found most 13 to 17-year-olds and adults believed that a reason why people became involved in the trouble that blighted the country was "to get goods and possessions they couldn't afford to buy".

The charity polled 1,004 adults and 1,077 13 to 17-year-olds from across the UK in an online survey between October 3 and November 10. It said they gave a mixed picture overall, with most choosing more than one reason why the riots happened.'

Excuses seem endemic in society today. Blame any one or anything rather than accepting the blame themselves. To suggest that poverty represents the values of 'I can't afford what I want' is banal. Poverty is the lack of the essentials to maintain life. You don't have to have a new flat screen TV, you don't have to have new designer trainers. I didn't see too many people stealing the essentials of life like bread, meat and vegetables!

The concept of what the minimum material possessions are seems to have gone through the roof. As has consequently the sums paid to benefit claimants. There is a section of the extreme left that promote the concept that we all (ie them) should have everything they want. Well yes, they can have what they want if they can afford it and work for it. Stealing it from someone else is never acceptable.

 Traditional values are being put down as old hat and not appropriate for today. Which other values are they prepared to abandon? Are they prepared to see theft being wrong go out the door? Values were held for centuries for a reason, because they worked and we need to keep them.