The "Right" see poverty and wealth as marks of "character" ;, the "Left" see them as marks of circumstance.

POVERTY by Townsend was required reading for my Social Sciences degree. Its quite old now but explains the multi faceted nature of poverty very well- still a great book in my view.

I don't have a lot of time this morning but I'd just like to throw in a couple of terms from social psychology - fundamental attribution error and spontaneous trait inference to get you googling if interested. Search on these + politics and you'll find a lot of scholarly articles. Anon.

Good post monica

Sure start was developed to try to mitigate against children whose economic and social position was deprived.

Sure Start was not just about early intervention, but it was also about parental education and active assistance.

Character hasnothing to do with it. There are so many other factors. The economic and social conditions you are born into, how much poverty and deprivation you suffer as a child.

Extreme poverty and malnourishment stunts a child's physical and mental development. As does maternal drinking and a whole lot of other factors - then there is the quality of education you receive.

All these and many other factors, that I am sure other posters will add, contribute to your capacity to have access to well paid careers. Some will succeed, but if one succeeds it does not follow that everyone can do it. All sorts of opportunities light on one person and not another.

The way forwrad is to make sure from birth that those with most handicaps in life get the same opportunities to develop in life as more fortunate life, by concentrating more ressources, and most of all attention and help to their families from birth.

I would call mine the more centrist view, not your idea of the centre being half and half of each. The centrist view is the third point on a triangle, not the middle point on a line.