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Ruth-Ellen Henry

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Should governments decide where the poor can live?

In Camden, London there are a group of 750 plus people that live of the state and can't afford to stay there due to new legislation which has come into force. These people can't find jobs at the moment so are reliant on the government to support them with housing costs. Due to this reliance the government has stated it will relocate this group to an area outside of London with even less chance of finding employment but lower housing costs. Surely a better way is to support these people to find sustainable employment? What do you think?

Topics: Poor Economy government benefits humanitarian aid
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  • Gordon Barker 10+

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    Feb 20 2013: Hardly.
    The government is not a magical system. It is made up of ordinary people with ordinary biases and opinions and average (OK, below average) intelligence.
    My understanding is that any random group of government officials will produce a worse solution than any random group of secretaries.

    • Ruth-Ellen Henry

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      Feb 24 2013: Thanks for engaging in the discussion Gordon. Indeed ordinary people that need to do extraordinary things with ordinary peoples lives and that's the problem. The government doesn't really know what issues and challenges ordinary people have because most are so disengaged with society they tend to fire fight with issues instead of being proactive.

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