As soon as we believe that the poor will always be with us, we have given up on humanity. There is no reason to believe that the poor will always be with us, unless we have given up on humanity. The “system,” or perhaps “capitalism,” its current manifestation, indeed guarantees that the poor will always be with us. Capitalism ensures that there will never be enough for everyone even as it ensures that only a small handful of people will have almost everything – one guarantee depends on the other. In a purely anarchist world, there would be no reason to be poor. In a purely anarchist world there would be neither private property nor its horrendous counterpart, money. The only reason for money or any kind of currency is to create privilege – those who have it and those who don’t. In a purely anarchist world the things we require would be created (manufactured, grown, etc) based on need – what and how much is needed – in order that everyone receives what they need. In a purely anarchist world everyone would receive what they need based on their existence alone rather than any measurement of their contribution to society. In a purely anarchist world, if you exist then you have a right to what you need: housing, food, education, health care, etc.
If we believe that the poor will always be with us because some people are just plain lazy and will refuse to contribute anything in an anarchist world where everything they need is available simply because they exist, then consider the following: 1) the amount of people who are as lazy as this fear assumes are miniscule; the poor want and are willing to work for better lives, but there isn’t enough for everyone no matter how hard some people work, 2) those few who have almost everything now don’t have to log in 8-10 hours or more every day – what’s the difference?, 3) in a purely anarchist world none of us would have to work as much as we do now even if lots of people didn’t do anything at all, and 4) if contributions to society must be measured, the measurements must look at contributions in many different ways and recognize that not everyone needs to produce tangible goods or provide physical labor to be considered a “productive member of society.”
