Why Fight Poverty?

Julia Unwin's book Why Fight Poverty? asks a provocative question. Calls to end poverty date back centuries. Even in prosperous modern times, despite the huge transformation of society, poverty has persisted. The challenge is getting harder because of changes in society, family structures and community patterns -- and because of the negative emotions about poverty within a welfare state. The recent crisis seems set to leave us with an economy in which some may never work and there is little public sympathy for the poor. This book looks back at the struggle to end poverty and asks if it has been worth it. What would a poverty-free country be like? Julia Unwin concludes that we urgently need to resolve poverty, because it is costly, wasteful and risky, but that we can only create a strong, shared understanding of poverty and how to end it when we recognize that 'they' are people like 'us'.