Across England, children are eating erasers or hiding in the playground because they can't afford lunch. The latest statistics show 3.9 million children – eight in every class of 30 – are growing up in poverty. Jade Hunter, a headteacher at West Earlham infant and nursery school in Norwich, commented to The Guardian newspaper: “We’ve had children so malnourished they’ve had heart murmurs. We’ve got two-year-olds coming in and trying to eat sand because they’re hungry.”
And it’s not just kids. People are turning to the black market for food as prices rocket. The surge in shoplifting isn’t just in the USA—the UK now has the same problem. Andrew Goodacre, the chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association said the cost of living crisis had made people “think of alternative ways of sourcing items that are essential to them. Shops that had not faced shoplifting in the past were reporting thieves clearing whole shelves in seconds.”
What can be said about Richard Penny, a 58 year old unemployed house painter, who wrote: “Took the bus for the 9.30 appointment at the jobcentre, where I met a nice chap who took me through my work commitments. It was then that I found out what I’m supposed to live on: £275 ($350) a month.”
Evidently, the economies of the USA and UK are failing the majority of people, even while food companies report record profits. Meanwhile the rich soar away to ever-higher levels of mammon. What can we do about this as a society?