Another important point is that we have in Canada started to take terms such as “child poverty” for granted. They have become entrenched; child poverty has become entrenched in our culture. Also, words like “the working poor”; we accept that there are going to be people who are working poor.
I'm here to tell you that especially in northern European countries, “working poverty” is considered an oxymoron; child poverty is something you should eradicate, not just deal with in some small measure.
The real point here, when we start looking at the continued erosion of our income security programs, is that there surely is an important role for responsibility, and individual responsibility; no one is denying that, and I can't imagine anyone being against individual responsibility.
At the same time, as we watch social assistance and employment insurance and the money being taken out of those programs consistently each year when compared with inflation, we're seeing those programs consistently eroding year after year without any kind of redress. So at the same time as we ask individuals to take responsibility, we have to be talking about governments taking responsibility, not just to measure but to stop that continual erosion.