Do you ever find yourself in one of those arguments about where the poverty line is? Can people in Australia really be poor when we have social welfare?
I find this debate regularly comes up with my family and friends at Christmas time. There are so many charities collecting toys for underprivileged kids and non-perishable food items so families can enjoy a Christmas dinner.
Someone pointed out to me recently – are these things even important? Could anyone living in Australia honestly say they are worse off than the people of Aleppo?
I don’t pretend to have the answers. However, one thing I have learned from volunteering with the Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic and working with people who suddenly find themselves unemployed due to injuries is that there is no one size fits all. We cannot know in each individual case why someone is struggling or how their circumstances are effecting them as individuals.
J K Rowling described of her experience as a struggling single mum relying on welfare. She felt that society had grouped her in with “the poor” and her story, as unique as everyone else’s, stopped being relevant. There were stereotypes and judgments about how she found herself in that position. Her overwhelming feeling was of isolation and shame.
These feelings are the real “first world problems”. They are significant and go a long way to explaining why rates of depression in modern England are higher than they were during the Blitz. I am sure that similar statistics would exist in Australia had we ever experienced that kind of protracted warfare on our shores.
I am happy to support the Christmas appeals for Australian charities. I think that anyone who feels they cannot cope this Christmas for any reason at all is reminded that we live in a country where everyone counts.
