Long-term poverty is more expensive than living on the dole

Long-term poverty  will cost significantly more than payment of unemployment benefits writes John Falzon, Chief Executive of the National Council of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia.  ” It’s easy to blame people for being outside the labour market or on its low-paid fringes. It’s easy when you’re passing judgment from a comfortable vantage point, well above the fray. The members of my organisation, the St Vincent de Paul Society, however, are painfully close to the reality of poverty in a prosperous nation. ….. The people we assist are waging a battle for respect. They are frequently demonised and all too often damned. Our problem is not the bad behaviour of the so-called moral underclass. Our problem is inequality; an inequality of resources, of opportunities, of hope….. ”   Mr John Falzon, Chief Executive of the National Council of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia,  concludes that  long-term poverty  will cost significantly more than payment of unemployment benefits.
Hat tip to Tim Williams and the CM site in Australia