On a more "serious" note,  poverty alleviation comes about through the
strength of social movements.  Poverty rates in developed nations are
perfectly correlated with labour union strength and influence and vote
percentage of "left" parties. Also proportional representation...

If you think you are going to convince liberal politicians -- and I include
both main parties in Canada and the USA -- that it is in their interest to
reduce poverty. Think again.  Poverty is reduced by raising wages,
providing active labour polities, supporting the right and ease of
unionization, and providing strong financial supports to those out of work.
In Ontario, the "liberal" government is about to crack down on hungry
families with children who had been receiving the social assistance diet
supplement.  See below...
-------------------------------------------------------
Maintaining Population Health in a Period of Welfare State Decline:
Political Economy as the Missing Dimension in Health Promotion Theory and
Practice

Dennis Raphael1 and Toba Bryant2
1School of Health Policy and Management, York University, Toronto, Canada
2 Centre for Research in Inner City Health, St. Michael's Hospital,
Toronto, Canada

Summary
There is increasing recognition in the health promotion and population
health fields that the primary determinants of health are outside the
health care and behavioural risk arenas. Many of these factors involve
public policy decisions made by governments that influence the distribution
of income, degree of social security, and quality and availability of
education, food, and housing, among others. These non-medical and
non-lifestyle factors have come to be known as the social determinants of
health. In many nations - and this is especially the case in North America
-- recent policy decisions are undermining these social determinants of
health. A political economy analysis of the forces supporting as well as
threatening the welfare state is offered as a means of both understanding
these policy decisions and advancing the health promotion and population
health agenda. The building blocks of social democracies -- the political
systems that seem most amenable to securing the social determinants of
health - are identified as key to promoting health. Health promoters and
population health researchers need to "get political" and recognize the
importance of political and social action in support of health.

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