"Torsten Brinch" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 20 Dec 2002 13:49:50 GMT, "Michelle Fulton"
..

It should be the exception, rather than the rule, that a society needs
to subsidize the production of basic necessities for survival.


Society has to provide for the poor. This can be done by either a
minimum wage that is liveable in a free market,
social payments or subsidise in the basics.

Each have their own problems. If minimum wages are pushed up to the
minimum for someone living in London then it will be hard to create jobs
that can employ at this level throughout the country.

Subsidise have their own problems of losing touch with their purpose and
encouraging a plutocracy that costs a disproportionate amount.

The continueing underlying problem is that in Britain the minimum amount
needed to survive is nearly
the same as average income. This results in nearly half the population
getting both social payments and paying tax.

Until minimum wages exceed minimum cost of living then a set of distorting
welfare and subsidiese payments are inevitable.