Offering a helping hand to tackle our poverty complex

The idea that being poor is somehow the byproduct of bad personal choices, as opposed to, say, badly designed government policy, is a lazy, sloppy cop-out, writes Joyce Fegan.

WE GIVE hampers to the poor at Christmas, and drop coins, maybe even a silent note, into choirs’ collection buckets. But, when it comes to social welfare and hardcore poverty, that’s where our humanity falters and our generosity mutates.