Poverty is not Natural

'Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings' Nelson Mandela The author raises some fundamental questions about the distribution of wealth. Why is it that those who produce the wealth, the workers, receive only a small portion of what they have produced? Why are there so many unemployed and so cannot provide for themselves? What is the privilege that grants some a lion's share of the product without having to work for it? A trade union organiser for many years, George Curtis came to realise that there are limits to the improvement in wages that can be achieved through collective bargaining so long as this privilege remains. In fact higher wages increase the windfall gains of those benefitting from the privilege. This book traces the cause of poverty to a widely accepted social institution, just as slavery once was, and reveals a way in which this defect could be remedied by introducing a more efficient way of funding government.

George Curtis began work as a farm labourer at the age of 14. Aged18, he joined the National Union of Agricultural Workers. Two years later he became village branch secretary and took advantage of the educational opportunities offered by his union. He later left farm employment and was appointed a recruiting officer for the union, eventually becoming a district organiser, a post he held for over thirty years. On retirement he joined the Open University and graduated with a BSc (Hons) degree in Social Sciences.