A thread to document the movement of wealth from poor to rich

[Idaho]

Thought it might be interesting to have a thread to file news that shows the trickle up effect of our world.

This is a story following up one of Thatchers flagship policies, the sale of public housing to private owners.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...ouncil-1743338

The multi-millionaire son of a Tory minister who presided over the controversial “right-to -buy” scheme is a buy-to-let landlord owning scores of former council flats.

A Daily Mirror investigation found a third of ex-council homes sold in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher were now owned by private landlords.

In one London borough almost half of ex-council properties are now sub-let to tenants.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

That's that symptom though - not a cause.

People sold their Council houses to "trade up" as intended - but the next generation couldn't afford to buy them.

[Idaho]

Another interesting twist to this story is that, if you are made unemployed, the government won't help to pay your mortgage. However they will happily pay your landlords mortgage if you get evicted and have to rent. Even if the landlords mortgage costs way more than your mortgage.

[Idaho]

This is more about controlling the poor than squeezing them for cash. However as free prisoner labour is surely something the conservatives dream of, it amounts to the same thing.

I actually find Monbiot quite annoying, but it's an important point and this is an attack on liberty that is desperately open for abuse:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...one-everything

The bill would permit injunctions against anyone of 10 or older who "has engaged or threatens to engage in conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person". It would replace asbos with ipnas (injunctions to prevent nuisance and annoyance), which would not only forbid certain forms of behaviour, but also force the recipient to discharge positive obligations. In other words, they can impose a kind of community service order on people who have committed no crime, which could, the law proposes, remain in force for the rest of their lives.
The bill also introduces public space protection orders, which can prevent either everybody or particular kinds of people from doing certain things in certain places. It creates new dispersal powers, which can be used by the police#to exclude people from an area (there is no size limit), whether or not they have done anything wrong.

[Husar]

Woops, I read it the other way around at first glance and expected an empty thread.

[The Black Douglas]

i read that the U.S.A. has the largest forced labour statistics IN THE WORLD! I know they are the new master-race etc but I was still shockafied (bush-ism).
apparently they make/pack the lions share of army supplies/equipment.

[Fragony]

Another interesting twist to this story is that, if you are made unemployed, the government won't help to pay your mortgage. However they will happily pay your landlords mortgage if you get evicted and have to rent. Even if the landlords mortgage costs way more than your mortgage.

That's defendable because the money flows back to the same government, otherwise it's just throwing it away. It shouldn't lead to unreasonable raising of the rent of course, but you still have your house for the same price when done right, you pay the landlord instead of the bank, it's the same money. What else, living under a bridge?