tightening our belts

children used to die of really quite normal things because of malnutrition and lack of healthcare, let alone the long term implications. Why would we want to strive for that?

Times have changed - we are comparing apples with oranges

It's a race to the bottom.

People need help to rise out of poverty rather than help coping with poverty.

In 1930s Australia the child mortality rate was 69 children per 1,000 live births. Today the figure is 4. We need to be moving forward with progress not slipping back to harder times.

You are right. All of you. Sorry I mentioned it.

Go back far enough and families managed without shops and grew and crafted everything they needed, go back further and they hunted and gathered all their sustenance and lived in caves and rough shelters.

Looking back at past condititons doesn't really tell us anything about how people in poverty manage today. I mean at one point in the not too far distant past, the poor just starved to death in the street or in their hovels.

We do a weekly food bank shop, the list we are given and asked to adhere to is tinned and dried food, UHT milk etc.
People can no longer afford to put money in the meter to refrigerate food.

Times have changed. Many mothers have to work, and few have land to grow stuff. Cooking on gas costs as much as the ingredients. A cinema ticket for an adult costs around £11, for a child £6-7. And frankly, you may have been happy, but an awful lot of people were not. Don’t knock today’s young parents who have it way harder than previous generations.

I think that most families in poverty are already managing on very little. They have to. Many live in houses with no outdoor space so impossible to grow their own veg. Many who are on benefits are in work but paid a pittance. Looking back at how people managed in the past doesn't actually help, although it is interesting. Perhaps improving the basic income and cutting energy bills might help