Alex asked:

Does poverty diminish human dignity?

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The short answer to your question is yes. Poverty has always been regarded by the public at large,
and particularly the 'well-off', as a condition afflicting the lowly, the lazy, the careless, the uneducated,
the undignified and the petty criminal. It has rarely been regarded that these conditions are the effects
of poverty, but are usually considered to be the causes.

Although very young at the time I have retained vivid memories of what it was like to be poor
throughout the 'slump period' of the 1930's. Although there were vain attempts to retain dignity, often
by pretending that things were not as bad as they seemed, it was found that poverty was not a
condition that could be successfully hidden, the facade was easily penetrated, particularly by the
'better-off'. Attempting toretain dignity was often carried to extremes, where some were willing to die
rather than accept charity. A silly and futile sacrifice when the importance of dignity depended not on
subjective feeling and emotion, but on objective perception by the public at large. Dignity is not an
obvious attribute shown by someone standing in a long dole queue without overcoat in freezing cold
or pouring rain. Neither is it plainly revealed by someone standing for hours in similar conditions
outside a factory, hoping to be chosen to do a job for less than the going rate, and probably less than
they would get on the dole. There was no great sense of dignity felt by children at school who stood
with their backs to the wall in the playground, so that no-one would see the large patch or hole in the
seat of their trousers. Down-at-heel shoes, or shoes that pinched because they were now too small,
hardly allowed a dignified walk across a class room or a school stage.

However dignified the poor try to be their efforts are always under-mined by their perceived condition.
Attempts to overcome this have usually been by way of cleanliness. In the 1930's, and indeed later,
regular attention was devoted to scrubbing doorsteps and flags outside their homes, windows
sparkled, there was a rigid adherence to the weekly wash day, if people dressed in rags they were
proud to declare that they were clean rags. Homes, though sparsely furnished were often spotless
and reeked of disinfectant. In contrast to this, however, there were those who had sunk so low with
despair that they did not give a damn what their homes looked like or what they wore; these were the
ones who usually found solace in the local pub and often became the stereotypes of the poverty
stricken, having abandoned the futile effort to maintain a sense of dignity.

Whilst nations insist that capitalism is the utilitarian objective in this world then there will always be
poverty, rich people gain their wealth at the expense of others, in a capitalist system there must
always be an upper and a lower class, it could not work otherwise.

John Brandon