It used to be a family could get by ok (infact it was the norm) with just one working parent.
When was it the norm to only have men work? Can you specify which social class these people are? In a typical farmer family, what did the moms do back then? What about the typical merchant family - the ones who own family shop? Where and when did women used to not work?
Your comparison is flawed as poverty must be within context of the time and society which is being discussed.
Welfare provided enough to either eat or pay rent, not both.
I feel like there is a big difference with what Yeez is saying compared to what other people are saying. Coming from a third-world country myself, I have similar mindset to Yeez. (even more so back then, and my elders are even more conservative than me). Sometimes when people who live in UK say that they live in poverty... it's a lot different to poverty in my home country. Free health care, free education, high wages (high standard of living, too. You get the best high quality goods there)... Poor people in my country barely attend school (no school/can't afford it) and they barely have those old big tv in their homes. No flat-screen tv with cables and internet. Many don't even have a brick house, just those... straw/wooden huts.
Not saying that anybody should lower their standard of living. Nobody wants to live like the poor people from some fishing villages. But, if we want... let's see, to eradicate poverty world-wide, the rich have to give up their standard of living somehow. Equality would be achieved when the poorer gain some and the richer lose some.
My dad (a business man himself) used to say that Europeans are entitled. We can't afford free healthcare, but in Europe you get free "everything" and very high wages even for low-level workers. It's definitely very noble, and I have come to understand this kind of mindset after I meet more people from first-world countries (Europeans/Americans). Here's the thing though, the high standard of living is supported by extremely low wages. People who work for the goods can't even afford it themselves, they're all sent to be consumed by people from first-world countries.
I really understand about relative poverty. The 1% of western countries live like some aristocrats and dodge taxes left, right and center. But if we were to be equal and share the wealth, the richest 1% wouldn't be the only ones who need to step down, it's almost everyone... even the poorest from the west.
The way people think about this is different, and I don't think it's simply about knowledge. My dad is a professional and often train people who work at banks how to understand (some part of) economy. He often says that Europeans can't afford their luxury, and the more they demand "free things" the more unemployable they are. The poverty line in the US is at $11,770/year for 1 person household. (
https://aspe.hhs.gov/2015-poverty-guidelines). The minimum wage in Indonesia, Jakarta (most expensive city in Indonesia) is $190/month = $2280/year. That's for the most expensive city.
If you have a business, who will you employ? Indonesians or Americans? There are a lot of factors.. like US workers would be more educated, diligent (maybe), etc but if we were to live in utopia and we all have the same opportunity to study, don't you think that most Americans would be jobless because of the high minimum wage? If there's a big surplus of workers and few jobs that pay... then the pay will go down even further... Thus Americans won't be able to afford the luxury they have now. I'm talking about those big houses with working AC/heaters, electricity, etc. Everything will downsize and you'll start to get cheap crap because you can't afford high-quality goods. In Indonesia, a motorbike is like a family car, the whole family fit into one. No more cars (expensive!), and you'll start to forgo safety/health concerns because you can't afford it.
What do you think? Would you be willing to relinquish safety/comfort of your life? When people talk about inequality/wealth gap I feel like people think that their standard of living need to increase and the rich 1% should step down. I don't think so. If we're talking about global wealth gap, the people who complain about healthcare in the US might need to drag their healthcare standards even lower... it's not just the rich 1%. Everybody needs to step down. And it's easier to talk the talk than to walk the walk.
Topic: The harsh reality of Pakistanis living in Canada