Thursday 3 December 2009

Parody Singularity (7)

More blah-waffle at the BBC about "poverty" ... yadda-yadda ... the best bit is right at the end:

"We are committed to fighting poverty and action we have taken has seen persistent poverty fall to its lowest ever level," said a spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions. "We know that work is the best route out of poverty and that is why we have invested £5bn since last November in creating jobs, bringing in front line advisers to Jobcentre Plus and expanding training and apprenticeships."

Yup, a hundred thousand new "front line advisors" at £50,000 a pop (including office costs, car allowance etc), that's your £5 billion.

PS, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is a proper, privately funded foundation, but the same can't be said for the New Policy Institute: "Almost all its funding is project-based and comes principally from charitable foundations, trade unions, voluntary sector organisations and public sector bodies."

7 comments:

promotional items said...

All of these, to borrow a term of Howard Gardner's, "multiple intelligences," makes the intelligence of the human a much more topologically varied map than any possible one of a computer.

James Higham said...

Great way to tackle poverty - spend on fat cats. Yep, that's the Labour way.

DBC Reed said...

Please bear in mind that Joseph Rowntree left a memorandum dated 1904 in which he stated " I have already alluded to the Land Question .Such aspects of it as the nationalisation of land,or the taxation of land values or the appropriation of unearned increment-all need a treatment far more thorough than they have yet received.If one or other of the Directors and Trustees were able to collaborate with competent investigators or workers upon these questions,it would be quite suitable for large sums to be appropriated in this direction" Seems an open invitation but I think I should take care of any aspects that bear upon the matter of the banking system.

Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, the official term is "investing in the economy".

DBC, true, always good to remind people I suppose.

bayard said...

"it would be quite suitable for large sums to be appropriated in this direction"

So when's the Land Value Taxation Institute going to open for business then?

DBC Reed said...

@bayard
Right .This is what I was trying to suggest to Mark W but he does not seem interested.There is a longstanding commitment to LVT minded activities at Rowntree that they do not appear to have honoured for over a hundred years.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, there are loads of people who campaign for LVT - lefties, Christians, greenies and rabid right wingers, as well as The Keepers Of The Flame. I'm not sure who or which of these have tried to tap the JRF, to be honest.

DBC, the next time the JRF (or one of its offfshoots) does a suitable call for a proposal we might as well fire one off. I'll help you complete it if needs be. But our main problem is stupidity, not lack of funding.