London’s poor facing squeeze amid housing-benefit cuts

Washington Post ^ | June 21, 2011 | Anthony Faiola

[Second Amendment First]

The Kastrati family? Sound British to you?

[pnh102]

Funny how when one considers how high taxes are in the UK, it never seems to be enough.

[Second Amendment First]

Oh, I see, Shpejtim Kastrati, 25, whose family fled to London from Kosovo in the 1990s.

[wita]

Sounds veddy Rush Limbaugh to me.

[LibsRJerks]

But, but, but ...you VOTED for them, now, didn’t you?

Socialists — evil the world throughout. And their followers — terminally stupid.

[wita]

A play on words finding reality. Didn’t take long either.

[Tax-chick]

Maybe the Kastrati could develop a skill with the same economic appeal as their neighbors’ music, acting, or posing. Perhaps they could be a family opera-singing troupe.

[Second Amendment First]

Veddy.

“It’s a very complex psychological issue,” said Lord David Anthony Freud, the British government’s welfare reform minister and the great-grandson of Sigmund Freud. “The issue is, what set of expectations is the state breeding in people? . . . We need to wean them off the state.”

[pnh102]

But, but, but ...you VOTED for them, now, didn’t you?

Socialists — evil the world throughout. And their followers — terminally stupid.

That's the funny thing. Since the UK does not tax income that her citizens earn outside of the country, many of the rich people there simply set up residence in tax havens. The irony of that is that many of those rich people are themselves socialists. The even greater irony is that most foreign tax havens wisely do not grant voting privileges to such people. :)

[Second Amendment First]

There was actually a protest recently against Bono for moving his business from Ireland to the Netherlands, so he could save on taxes, that he likes extracted from others that he would redistribute to the worlds poor.

[wita]

The even greater irony is that most foreign tax havens wisely do not grant voting privileges to such people. :)

Something whispers, there is a larger lesson here.

[Venturer]

The only thing I can say about Britains welfare problem, is that here in America-—”Been there —Done that”.

[Jim Noble]

Yet as benefits are rolled back, academics are warning of a major side effect: an exodus of the poor from central London

That's not a bug, it's a feature.

[libertylover]

deficit-busting crusade taking place across Europe and now under serious debate in Washington

Really? I haven't heard a single Democrat offer anything serious. Maybe I just missed it.

[Oceander]

"Poor immigrants struggling to survive in one of the world’s most expensive cities, the family of four nevertheless lives in a sunny, two-bedroom flat in an enclave of urban privilege. Their benefactor: the British government, which covers 85 percent of their $3,600-a-month rent through welfare benefits giving tens of thousands of low-income earners access to even the best neighborhoods. But the clock on such subsidized London lifestyles is suddenly running out."

Boo-hoo-hoo. Cry me a river. If I have to live within my means, then so should everyone else. If you cannot afford a swank flat in the middle of London, then you should do the only sane, sensible thing and move to a town with more affordable housing.

There is no right or entitlement to live where you wish to, regardless of your means - unless, that is, you happen to be a liberal/socialist.

[Second Amendment First]

Yet in London the poor will be banished to the outer suburbs, while here the affluent flee to the outer suburbs and the poor remain in the inner city ghettos.

The Ryan family, mentioned in the article, and featured in the slide show, seem to do nothing other than wander the neighborhood shopping. No wonder they’re poor and the husband had a mental breakdown.

[Scotsman will be Free]

The insanity of liberals is simply unbelievable.

[PapaBear3625]

The other day I was reading about how Republican congressmen are sleeping in their offices to avoid sky-high DC apartment rents. One would think that high rents would create a tendency to gentrify low-income areas of DC.

I wonder what barriers to gentrification the DC council and federal legislature has put in place to prevent this?

[Buckeye McFrog]

it’s almost as if Congress had killed all funding for Section 8...

[Buckeye McFrog]

One would think that high rents would create a tendency to gentrify low-income areas of DC

That is indeed happening. DC is gentrifying and every day becoming LESS BLACK. This is causing the local Black Democrat power base to FREAK OUT about the prospect of losing a grip on their "chocolate city". Not racism, just a statement of fact.