"where charity really does begin at home..."

The Underclass Industry can be defined as institutional charity, social enterprise or government department that fails to 'help others' in any proportion to the resources it lays claims to.

Symptoms - problems caused by the Underclass Industry

Jesus once said "The poor will always be with us" but with current yearly charitable donations in the UK approaching £10,000,000,000 a year it has to be asked, why, why will the poor always be with us?

Ten billion divided by 60 million people, is £116 for each person in the UK a year.
Apparently in 2006-07 Charitable giving fell in the UK by 3% on the previous year.
Once again, why, why is it falling? Why are people becoming disillusioned with charity and giving less? - Especially when Gordon Brown is doing such a wonderful job of making us all richer, either by great jobs, or wonderful tax credits? So why "will the poor always be with us"?

The answer to these questions lies in three words:

The. Underclass. Industry.

Diagnosis - Markers of an institution within the Underclass Industry.

The Underclass Industry subcontracts as much as it can: from admin, HR, and even extending to fundraising itself.

The Underclass Industry cynically exploits the poor to support an elite of trustees, board members, administrators and other parasites on the body of good intentions.

The Underclass Industry turns charity into a cynical and psychotic confused mess of greedy begging, using more to do less, instead of using less to do more. such charities seldom find themselves overfunded, how can you overfund a black hole of 'help thyself'. You can't.

The Underclass Industry enables 'fundraising agencies' to exist, who manage to cut a profit from employing legions of puffa jacketed prats to maraud upon high streets nationwide. Skimming healthy profits atop the ubiquitous "only £2 a month" pitch. One of these puffa jackets has to sign up at least 4 people an hour before the charity commissioning the fundraising agency has a chance of seeing a penny. Putting it another way: they suck: and anyone signing up with chuggers is a moron. Albeit a good hearted moron.

The Underclass Industry enables chief executives to claim well over £60,000 annual salaries with all expenses paid. Even apparently grass-roots and community based charities do it , not just the mega-charities that can afford TV ads.

The Underclass Industry inspires endless talk, yak yak yak, advice services, 'walk-in' centres, 'one-stop-shops', 'charity shops', all like predators stalking for endless finance and funding that could have gone to useful institutions that actually have a purpose in the real world instead of the old classic "spreading awareness", and "enabling/empowering" people malarky.

The sad truth of the Underclass Industry is that it needs the poor more than the poor have ever needed it. Government policy is as complicit in building the Underclass Industry as anything. It help to ensure it's continued custom:

"The courts are handing out three times as much prison time for drug offences as a decade ago but such "get tough" sentencing has done little to stem the flow of drugs on to the streets, where prices continue to fall, according to a study.

The research, commissioned by the UK Drug Policy Commission for its launch yesterday, also shows that Britain has the second-highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe and questions the effectiveness of official drug education and prevention programmes. But the report stops far short of saying that the government's drug policy has failed and instead prefers to describe its impact as "limited". It highlights the successful expansion of drug treatment programmes and the decline in cannabis use following the decision to downgrade its criminal status.
Dame Ruth Runciman, chair of the commission, said it would provide objective analysis of drug policy issues in Britain.

Members of the commission, set up with £3m of funding over three years from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, include the chief executive of the Medical Research Council, a former chief constable, a director of the National Treatment Agency and the chief executive of Shelter......" Source

The Underclass Industry can never fulfill its goals or meet it's targets, it sees no reason to quash the rationale for its existence. And why should it? It's making a luxury living out of exploiting social problems into great profits.

Just like Charity shops. Another sad facet of how out of touch we all are with what true charity is. Sophie Parkin of the Daily Mail has commented : "only 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the clothes we donate are sold in Britain to be worn again". The rest are making a handsome profit for recycling middlemen. £18 on the ton?

Treatment - How to end the Underclass Industry once and for all.

The poorest of peoples have the most money. Poor in spirit, heart and purpose they salve conscience through throwing 'the needy' a few bones through institutional charity offered by the Underclass Industry. Are they even aware they are solidifying the structure that keeps poverty a fact of life for the future? Some must, yet it's certain the majority have no such understanding of the futility of their 'generosity'.

So Jesus said: "The poor will always be with us", but he also said "The meek shall inherit the Earth". And we will. Poverty is all around us, in our food, water, families, culture and society. Yet, it is a top down phenomenon. It starts with spiritual poverty, moving though our collective mental poverty and manifests in the real world, in Jobcentres, soup kitchens and squats across the world.

We live in a crisis of hope, not a crisis of resources or capability, despite everything "Economics 101" preaches there is no question any longer of  scarcity of resources to fill needs, only wants. The 'want' to control as much as possible it the largest drain on our resources of all. It is the manna which all 'illuminates' fight and kill for... making life suck for 99% of the world population in the process.

Education is no cure. As a system of imposed ignorance it perpetuates our problems with charity as much as anything else. Information and free thought are the precursors to truth, and the truth certainly does set you free. Where it matter most. In the Spiritual and mental realm. For this reason IntelligentGiving.com is an interesting and beautiful venture in free thought and information as regards Charities. Obvioulsy there has been a bit of whining from the Big Charity benches, but that's all good - as is anything that keeps them on their toes and up all night.

To end the support of the underclass industry is painstakingly simple, and ideally suited to the British skill of congenial apathy. Don't give unless you know where your money is going. Give locally, give without expecting a plastic poppy of stupid gay ribbon in return. Charity isn't fashionable no matter what bangles you bring with it. It's hard, horrible dirty and dangerous work, and there are so so many noble and wonderful people working their socks off to provide a difference against a world power structure that enforces suffering on massive scales to keep the scum down...

Don't bite the hand that feeds, and don't feed the hand that bites, know your enemy - poverty, hopelessness and ignorance are not the natural and inevitable states of humankind. They're a specific target that you might be better controlled, so seeing the Underclass Industry for what it is, whilst still believeing in the power of charity, of giving freely and lovingly of time, action and resources... will do a damn sight more to make sure the poor are not always with us, and prove Jesus's dire prognostications that "the poor will always be with us" wrong.

Because whilst it might be 'blasphemous' to say, I think that's what he would have wanted, for us to eventually prove him wrong.

To be continued...