>And you have the cheek to say that this is an iniquitous society?
It's not as simple as a welfare state existing or not - see below.
and, 'each according to their need...etc' is a quote from Marx to describe the ideal communist state - hardly applicable to the UK.
Poor people with the greatest need for good health care, education, jobs, housing and transport continue to have the worst access to opportunities and services 60 years after the founding of the welfare state, according to a new assessment of 21st-century Life in Britain, co-authored by Dr Mary Shaw of the University of Bristol's Department of Social Medicine.
A series of ten analytical studies for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, launched today at a lunch meeting at the Royal Geographical Society's Annual Conference, use data from the millennial Census to uncover the continuing 'inverse care law' whereby poor communities have the least access to essential life chances and resources.
"From that point of view, it is acutely disappointing to discover that so many opportunities and resources still depend on where people live. Wide and persisting inequality is reflected in big differences between 'rich' and 'poor' areas in terms of housing, education and health care as well as economic wealth. Perversely, people living in the poorest neighbourhoods with the greatest needs are often the least likely to have access to the services and support that would help them improve their lives and life chances."
etc.
from:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2005/789