Mbeki: Rich, poor better off

B

boramk

Bammed
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
9,957
Reaction score
338
Location
Chicago
Cape Town - The real incomes of the poorest 30% of South Africans have increased by an above-average amount, according to President Mbeki.

However, he said, so have the incomes of the top 10% of citizens.

Answering questions in the National Assembly on Thursday, the president drew on a variety of statistics to show that even though the gap between the poorest and richest was still unacceptably wide and getting slightly wider, the poor were a deal better off than they were.

He also suggested that there was less inequality among the middle classes, and among the skilled working class in terms of both race and gender.

Answering a question from an ANC member NN Sibhidla, who wanted to know whether government policies were reducing the gap between the rich and the poor, he said that the answer was too complex for a straight yes or no.

Stats SA's household expenditure survey showed, he said, that the Gini co-efficient, which measures the gap, continues to remain high between social groups and within those groups. The Gini coefficient for the whole country was 0.72.

But if the social grants were taken out of the equation the Gini co-efficient went to 0.8. "That is, a reduction in inequality through redistributive policies reduces the Gini coefficient by eight percentage points," Mbeki told MPs.

The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion used as a measure of inequality of income distribution or inequality of wealth distribution. It is defined as a ratio with values between 0 and 1.

A low Gini coefficient indicates more equal income or wealth distribution, while a high Gini coefficient indicates more unequal distribution.

Zero corresponds to perfect equality, with everyone having exactly the same income, and 1 corresponds to perfect inequality where one person has all the income, while everyone else has zero income.

'Doesn't mean more poverty'

"This does not mean growing impoverishment among sections of our population," the president insisted. "In this regard the Stats SA report says from 2000 to 2005/06, black African households' share of consumption expenditure rose from 42.9% to 44.3S% and their share of the population rose from 78.3% to 79.4%.

"Black African households experienced increases in share of expenditure in each expenditure category except in for miscellaneous goods and services, with the largest increases occurring in food and non-alcoholic beverages, furnishings, household equipment and maintenance and communications."
Click to expand...

http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-25_2283547
 
Ok, i think in the last few days all i have been hearing from our dear government and their officials are LIES, LIES and more LIES.

The poor are still very poor and getting poorer with all the increases.
I can't believe he would even mention the poor with a straight face. If i were president, i would grow a huge conscience because there's poor people under my rule....

:mad::mad::mad:
 
Moederloos said:
This is the same moron who says Eskom problems will not hurt us
http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-25_2283560

And that is new news, right now.
Closing the building industry will just mean them darn elves, pixies and tokoloshes will need to build more [-]shoes[/-] houses.
Click to expand...

The man is a spineless twit who cannot face up to reality or take responsibility for any of his government's dismal failures. LIES,LIES, LIES that's all you ever hear from these people. Just how stupid does he think we are? As stupid as his supporters?

And what do we to look forward to after he has retired to his tidy little nestegg. The brilliant Jacob Zuma? There is no hope!!!:sick:
 
Rozier said:
The man is a spineless twit who cannot face up to reality or take responsibility for any of his government's dismal failures. LIES,LIES, LIES that's all you ever hear from these people. Just how stupid does he think we are? As stupid as his supporters?

And what do we to look forward to after he has retired to his tidy little nestegg. The brilliant Jacob Zuma? There is no hope!!!:sick:
Click to expand...

Now the stupid twits killed the construction industry.
There are more people directly employed in construction than any other industry.
Indirect employment is difficult to say, but there are a lot of hardware suppliers that will take a beating.

The reason they picked on construction is because the unions are not as organised as the mines.
 
Piepalook said:
Now the stupid twits killed the construction industry.
There are more people directly employed in construction than any other industry.
Indirect employment is difficult to say, but there are a lot of hardware suppliers that will take a beating.

The reason they picked on construction is because the unions are not as organised as the mines.
Click to expand...

And he is trying to blackmail industry, by stating that only if they do not retrench workers will they be given additional electricity. This government simply has no morals.:sick:
 
Haha so maybe they earning a few hundred rand more each month but does this idiot not realise that food prices have risen by nearly 40% in two years!, in another two years only the rich will be eating.
 
killadoob said:
the rich get richer and the poor get fu$%ed over and out
Click to expand...

You will note that Mbeki says that the poor use money for communication.

Cellphones.

Some people would rather phone someone than eat.

Weird.

I wonder if a survey was done to determine how much money is spent by the poorest of the poor on communication.

It might be interesting.

Lately everybody has a cellphone.
 
Im not half as poor as alot of people, but I can assure you that I only buy R35 airtime every three months. I have a phone mostly so others can contact me. Rarely do I actually make a phonecall or send an sms. Costs alot.

But yeah, everyone has a cellphone. Beggars who have cellphones but claim they have no food get no sympathy from me. We lived without cell phones for a long time, its very possible. They have better cellphones than I do. I also dont see why a beggar without food would need a cellphone? Is it so they can make plans for friday nights with their homeless buddies and party????? Whats wrong with a payphone? Not classy enough for the homeless?

The beggars in this country are very comfortable where they are. They dont want to work, they want to get paid for standing around. Hell, if you have a blind friend in this country, its like a great opportunity to quite your job and take full advantage of their disadvantage by helping them guilt trip people into giving them money. Why doesn't the able guy get a job? Cause walking a blind person around is easier..
 
Seems like the Notorious Mbeki's been listening to much Notorious B.I.G...

Mo' money, mo' problems
 
What rubbish, this is on;y because he is not poor. I think the politicians have lost touch with whats happening on the ground. Donald trup and Robert Kiyosaki talk about the 90/10 rule. 90% of the wealth is in 10% of the populations hands. Always has been and always will be.
 
Pixie22 said:
, if you have a blind friend in this country, its like a great opportunity to quite your job and take full advantage of their disadvantage by helping them guilt trip people into giving them money. Why doesn't the able guy get a job? Cause walking a blind person around is easier..
Click to expand...

Ooooh is that what that is, stopped at a robot in jozi and thought wtf this dude wants to sell me a blind man and an empty can of coke! :D
 
diesel said:
Ooooh is that what that is, stopped at a robot in jozi and thought wtf this dude wants to sell me a blind man and an empty can of coke! :D
Click to expand...
LMAO...that made my day!

Reminds of a story I read about a guy congratulating a beggar on his determination after the beggar told him he hadn't eaten in 2 weeks.
 
So the poorest of poor and the richest of the rich are better off. Well done guavamint! What about the average South African?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X