Again you cannot compare poor countries to western, as the prices are different.
Most people here unless they are rich they barely get by paying sky high rent and food costs and utilites going up up. My own utilites are almost 300 pounds a month. You barely get an apartment for under thousand pounds these days, and houses are over 1100 pounds. Food for just one person is at least 300 pounds a month that includes the cheapest stores and includes washing and pet food. That is most people`s money gone. Most people do not earn high salaries, the salaries in Uk has not risen with inflation. Then you can add in travel expenses for work for example. Everyone`s are different depending on where they work. It is going up and up too. And trains are very expensive, and some do not have a choice but uber or trains as they have longer distance to work. It is also not showing signs to go down. And cuts are on the table.
It is even worse for those that have health issues, cuts are on the way.
Most people, unless you earn a lot do not have much left at all if anything after everything, the basics are paid. That is reality in Uk and western countries.
So you really cannot compare to western countries and poor. They do not have all these expenses. There are many children in Uk that live on the poverty line or almost. That go hungry to school. That can`t afford school clothing or normal clothing or food. That go hungry to bed. Parents that struggle.
The main reason i entered into discussion on this subject was to try to dispel what i see as the myth that Christ taught its not Riches that are the problem but your attitude towards them. I hope that i've presented a case with numerous Biblical references to support my belief that Christ condemned the mere POSSESSION of Riches and those that possess them, and that your attitude towards your wealth is shown by the very fact that you are rich and keep that wealth for yourself.
What constitutes being rich is very much a subjective judgement and to a large part depends on who youre comparing yourself with and how you view the abundance of your wealth, and the state of your Heart, how deeply you feel the sufferings of those that have so little in a world of such abundance. Absolute poverty affects nearly 1 billion people who have to "live" on a few $'s a day, 800 million go hungry, the same number have no access to clean water, and health care and education for their children is out of reach for hundreds of millions, Around 15000-16000 young children die every day from hunger and disease and the question i ask myself is, in a world of such poverty , suffering and death how does God view my life?.
Yes i am comparatively poor when compared to those around me but in world terms i am undoubtedly rich. And i believe that the same applies to most people in the rich world. We may believe ourselves comparatively poor when compared to other people in the societies we live in, but in world terms we are rich
So let me ask you a question, when did you last hear of a young child dying from hunger in the UK, when did you hear of a young child dying from diarrhoea, which kills half a million children worldwide, or Measles, when did you hear of someone having no access to clean water or health care provision when theyre seriously ill or of a child denied the chance of an education, which happens to 273 million children worldwide. I cite these figures to give you some idea of the horrendous poverty and suffering that happens every day in Gods world.
So lets turn to the UK, where we both live. Now i'm not denying that there may be absolute poverty here, but its a very rare occurence, there is comparative poverty but lets compare that comparative poverty in the UK with the absolute poverty i've illustrated in the so called "Third World" or "Developing world".
I live in Leicester, a city in the Midlands of the UK and probably fairly typical of the UK as a whole outside of the big Cities like London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham. For someone working and getting paid a minimum wage of £12 an hour, could i just quote here the minimum wage for a sweatshop worker in Bangladesh where much of the Clothes we wear are made, their minimum wage is roughly $100 a MONTH, $15 an hour in the UK, $100 a month in Bangladesh. Anyway for someone earning minimum wage in the Uk for a 40 hour week equates to roughly £500 a week. Now in Leicester, you can get a bedsit, a small apartment where the bed is incorporated into the living space for around £400-£450 per month, in some cases utility bills are included in the price, if you put food at £70 a week and other expenses like getting to work, clothes, TV licence and various extras, the total weekly outlay shouldnt be no more than £300 a week, now on minimum wage with current tax and National Insurance rates you should end up taking home around £400 a week, giving you an excess of £100 a week, on top of that you have clean water, free healthcare, education provision, a comprehensive Welfare system and all the benefits of living in a rich highly industrialised country.
For someone in a poor country, trying to survive on a few $'s a day, having to find housing costs, food, paying for clean water, education for their children , clothes, no welfare system, no healthcare provision, no retirement or sick pay provision, and where life is a constant struggle just to survive, the thought of having even £10 at the end of the week after the essentials had been paid would be riches indeed.
I wish i could take you to the slums of Kibera, or the sweatshops of Dhaka or the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro to experience what true poverty is, and then perhaps you might understand just how "Rich" we are. To live there for a year experiencing the lives those people have to endure, then come back to the UK and still tell me that many people in this country live in poverty and "struggle".
