It’s Time to Take on the Greed of the Food & Beverage Industry

Dec 5, 2024 | America has a diabetes and obesity crisis. And it’s not happening by accident. Junk foods are designed to be addictive, like cigarettes and alcohol. The FDA must act. Corporations cannot put their profits ahead of the health of our children.

For children to be brought up in a healthy way, mothers need to stay at home to cook for their children and care for them, as mothers always used to do. A mother’s place is in the home, not in the boardroom! When children were raised in traditional households, type-2 diabetes and obesity were a rarity. Good wholesome food could be cooked by the mother from scratch for her family. She had the time to cook for the family. These days, with mothers out working, they return home after work exhausted, so look for quick solutions to put food on the table for the family. Yes, nutrition labels, etc, will help, but they will not solve the problem entirely.

Children do not bring themselves up. They need to be brought up. Governments could do a great deal to make it possible for mothers to be able to afford to stay at home. Tax advantages and a universal basic income (UBI) could do lots to help make this possible for mothers again. Further, the Internet has also made it possible for people to earn a living from home.

What I have written here applies to traditional families. But the same could apply for gay families. One of the couple could stay at home to care for the children, and provide good, nutritious, sensible food for them instead of the junk they have to eat these days.

A healthy nation is built on healthy lifestyles. We have tried to re-invent the wheel and, as a result, we have got ourselves into an awful mess.

Oh, and by the way, there’s another positive with mothers at home: they can more easily help boost Western nations’ dangerously low birth rates. When birth rates are too low, we must import foreigners with alien values to provide a workforce for industry and commerce. Isn’t this one main reason why values and ideas in the West are changing so rapidly, and why many towns and cities are becoming unrecognisable? Demographic changes are accelerating. So, this isn’t only about type-2 diabetes and obesity. – © Mark Alexander

Michael Lambert: GREED and INEQUALITY will DESTROY the UK

Sep 16, 2023 | In addition to Global Warming and AI the biggest threat facing us is greed and inequality. The inept government of Rishi Sunak is out of control with new problems confronting it every day. Post Brexit, the economy is struggling. … | HATS are available from HATS are available HERE.

This is another great video, full of common sense, from Michael Lambert. It is comforting to know that I am not alone in my assessment of the dire state of the UK economy, post-Brexit. Not to put too fine a point on it, and in two words, Brexit has f****d up the UK and its economy. And the Tories are to blame for the FU – the Tories and that contemptible man, Nigel Farage. It is to be hoped that the Tories will pay a heavy price for this screw-up in the next, not-too-far-off election. In fact, the Party deserves to be wiped out for the Tories' incompetence, stupidity and corruption. There is only ONE problem: Labour are NOT the solution. The LibDems are this country's only hope now. Fortunately, under Ed Davey's sound leadership, the Party is going from strength to strength; however, the pace of the Party's gains needs to accelerate. – © Mark Alexander

Money, Happiness and Eternal Life - Greed (Director's Cut) | DW Documentary

Jun 24, 2017 • Can money and power ever make us happy? How much is enough? Our constant desire for more is part of our human nature.

Some call it a useful dowry of evolution, others a fault in the human genetic make-up: The old mortal sin Greed seems to be more ubiquitous than ever. Why can't people ever get enough, where is this self-indulgence leading - and are there any ways out of this vicious circle of gratification?

"People like to have a lot of stuff because it makes them the feeling of living forever," says American social psychologist Sheldon Solomon, who believes today's materialism and consumerism will have disastrous consequences.

Anyone who fails to satisfy his or her desires in this age of the Ego is deemed a loser. But with more than 7 billion people on the Earth, the ramifications of this excessive consumption of resources are already clear. Isn’t the deplorable state of our planet proof enough that "The Greed Program," which has made us crave possessions, status and power, is coming to an end? Or is the frenzied search for more and more still an indispensable part of our nature? We set off to look for the essence of greed. And we tell the stories of people who - whether as perpetrators or victims or even just as willing consumers - have become accomplices in a sea change in values.

Meltdown: The Men Who Crashed the World

The first of a four-part investigation into the world of greed and recklessness that led to financial collapse.

Pope Francis Attacks Huge Salaries for the Rich While Poor Survive on 'Crumbs'

THE INDEPENDENT: Pontiff attacks excessive bonuses, greed-based economy

Pope Francis has made yet another controversial statement on corporate greed and income inequality in the first peace message of his pontificate.

The Holy Father criticised the "gap between those who have more" and those who "must content with the crumbs", as he called on world governments to do more to close the gap between the super rich and the poor.

Pope Francis, who was recently named TIME magazine's Person of the Year, attacked excessive salaries and exorbitant bonuses as a symptom of an economy based on greed.

"The grave financial and economic crises of the present time have pushed man to seek satisfaction, happiness and security in consumption and earnings out of all proportion to the principles of a sound economy," the Pope said in a message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace[.]

"The succession of economic crises should lead to a timely rethinking of our models of economic development and to a change in lifestyles," he added[.]

Titled Fraternity, the Foundation and Pathway to Peace, the message attacked injustice, human trafficking and organised crime as obstacles to world peace.

The message will be delivered to world governments, NGOs and intergovernmental organisations. » | Maria Tadeo | Friday, December 13, 2013

Face Time: Hundreds March in DC in Anonymous-inspired Protest

People in hundreds of cities across the world are taking part in mass rallies planned by the global protest group - Anonymous. The day of action is called the Million Mask March - it's uniting those, protesting against the violation of online privacy, as well as corporate greed and corrupt governments. Protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks - are demonstrating their allegiance with the Anonymous hacktivist group - infamous for its online anti-government actions. One of the biggest rallies is underway in Washington DC - RT's Gayane Chichakyan joined the protesters there.

High Pay Commission: Most People Believe Executive Pay 'Out of Control'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Most people believe pay and bonuses for top executives are ''out of control'', according to a new study to coincide with a report which describes excessive high pay as ''corrosive'' to the economy.

A year-long inquiry by the High Pay Commission finds the pay of some top executives has soared by more than 4,000 per cent in the last 30 years, undermining productivity and ''damaging'' trust in British business.

The report criticised ''stratospheric'' pay increases which have seen wealth flow upwards to the top 0.1 per cent of people in the UK.

Average wages in the UK today are a ''modest'' £25,900 - up from £6,474 in 1980 - a three-fold increase.

The commission called for a number of reforms, including a ''radical simplification'' of executive pay, putting employees on remuneration committees, publishing the top 10 executive pay packages more widely, forcing companies to publish a pay ratio between the highest paid executive and the company median, and making firms reveal the total pay figure earned by executives.

The commission also said a new national body to monitor high pay should be established.

The report, Cheques With Balances: Why Tackling High Pay Is In The National Interest, showed that decisions to award huge pay packages are set by a ''closed shop'', shrouded in highly complex detail, effectively hidden from shareholders, staff and the public.

''Stratospheric increases in pay are damaging the UK economy - distorting markets, draining talent from key sectors and rewarding failure. Read on and comment » | Tuesday, November 22, 2011

My comment:

This is NOT capitalism! Capitalism rewards risk-takers. What risks do these executives take? They are in secure positions, and are rewarded with monopoly-figure salaries and bonuses even if they achieve little or nothing. This is unfair, corrosive, and a disincentive for others to take any risks or make any effort to better themselves. Faced with this scenario, why should anyone bother to make the effort to pull himself up by the bootstraps? This is a total disincentive to effort. And that's a very destructive situation for a capitalist economy to be in.

Further, it cannot be overemphasised that societies with such inequalities of wealth are a breeding ground for socialism, and even for communism. If you think that socialist/communist revolutions cannot happen in this day and age, and in this country, think again! Now do we really want to continue with this breeding ground for such a scenario? I think not. It is therefore high time to turn the screws on these obscene, vulgar fat cats. Tax them, until the pips squeak if necessary. The alternative scenario might well not be a pretty sight. – © Mark

This comment also appears here.

HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver In Line for £9m Bonus
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Stuart Gulliver, the new chief executive of HSBC, is expected to accept a bonus of as much as £9m later this month in reward for his stewardship of the bank's investment arm.

Mr Gulliver, who took over from Mike Geoghegan at the turn of the year, is set to be awarded the windfall as part of an overall compensation package which could take the total amount he receives for 2010 to in excess of £10m.

Although the bank's remuneration committee, chaired by HSBC's deputy chairman, John Thornton, has not yet finalised any executive bonuses, City sources with knowledge of the situation believe that a bonus of £9m is highly possible.

If so, it would mirror the amount Mr Gulliver received for 2009, and would be in line with the amount his counterpart at Barclays, Bob Diamond, is set to be paid.

Stephen Hester, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, and Eric Daniels, the chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, are likely to be in line for awards of £2.5m and £2m respectively. >>> James Quinn and Kamal Ahmed | Sunday, February 06, 2011

David Cameron Won’t Stop the Bonuses >>>

London's Neediest Curse City Bonuses

Terry Murden: Bank Bonuses Are Back as Politicians Roll Over
THE SCOTSMAN: NO-ONE should be surprised that the banks are expected to defy public opinion and once again pay multi-million pound bonuses.

Difficulties in controlling the bonus culture have been made plain by the frustrations felt by politicians across the spectrum and were highlighted here as far back as August 2009 after the then shadow chancellor George Osborne demanded that bonuses should be banned altogether in banks that had been bailed out by the taxpayer.

Well, he's moved a long way from that particular argument and now doesn't even see eye-to-eye with the bite-your-legs business secretary Vince Cable, who has found himself muzzled over the issue.

The bankers believe the Lib Dems who have been making most of the noise on this issue are now a bit of a spent force in the debate and that the slightly more banker-friendly tone emanating from Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron will leave them free to award themselves the sums they see as their right.

The banks argue that they contributed towards the £53.4 billion paid in taxes last year by the financial services industry, equal to 11.2 per cent of Britain's total tax receipts. No wonder the Treasury should consider it inappropriate to bite the hand that feeds it.

Before Christmas there were more threats of a new bonus tax, an idea revisited by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and warnings from Cable that the banks would be punished if they didn't change their ways. But opinion in the City is that there is not much substance behind them.

The bankers are now said to feel so confident of getting away with paying large bonuses that they see no further need for Project Merlin, the initiative led by Barclays former chief executive John Varley to repair relations with the government. Expect the next round of bonuses to be trimmed, but only marginally, and as an acknowledgement of, rather than a concession to, public outrage. >>> Terry Murden | Sunday, January 09, 2011

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Lib Dems tear into Tories 
on bonuses: Ministers are furious at George Osborne’s apparent cave-in over unacceptable bank bonuses in a time of austerity >>> Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor | Sunday, January 09, 2011 (£)

THE OBSERVER: Britain's best-paid bank boss set for showdown with MPs over huge bonus: Barclays chief Bob Diamond is under intense pressure to lead by example and give up payout >>> The Observer | Sunday, January 09, 2011

HSBC Doubles Salaries Of Investment Bankers
SKY NEWS: Banking giant HSBC is doubling the basic pay of hundreds of its senior investment bankers, Sky News can reveal.

Sky's City editor Mark Kleinman reports that the bank began informing staff in London, Hong Kong and New York about the pay rises last week.

A source close to the bank said some senior managers outside the global banking and markets (GBM) division were also being handed the pay increases.

HSBC's move comes ahead of the annual bank bonus round in the New Year.

"As UK politicians intensify warnings about the payment of mega-bonuses, HSBC may legitimately be able to point to a sharply reduced bonus pot by virtue of the fact that it will have only recently awarded large salary increases," noted Kleinman. Read on and comment >>> Hazel Baker, Sky News Online | Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Obama Slams Wall Street in Push for More Regulation
MAIL ONLINE: President Barack Obama rebuked fat cat executives for shady dealings as he pushed last night for sweeping reforms to stop another financial meltdown.

Without laws imposing stronger scrutiny of the financial industry America is doomed to repeat the past, the Presidents believes.

In a speech today at New York's Cooper Union college, near Wall Street, Mr Obama was outlining the need for new financial regulations and explaining what the nation would be risking if the existing framework is allowed to remain in place unchanged.

Echoing remarks he made in the same place two years ago, he said: 'A free market was never meant to be a free licence to take whatever you can get, however you can get it.

'That is what happened too often in the years leading up to the crisis. 'A free market was never meant to be a free licence to take what you can get': Obama slams Wall St in push for more regulation >>> Mail Foreign Service | Friday, April 23, 2010

Once Again, the French Are Leading the Way*! French Billionaire Antoine Zacharias Faces Criminal Trial Over Pay Deal
THE TELEGRAPH: A French millionaire [billionaire?] has become the first person in the country to go on trial for being paid too much, in a ground-breaking move against "corporate greed".

Antoine Zacharias is facing criminal charges. Photo: The Telegraph
Antoine Zacharias is facing criminal charges despite the £90 million pay and pension deal being approved by his company’s directors.

He is accused of misusing funds by accepting the money to run Vinci, the world’s biggest construction company.

The sum was set by a remuneration committee chaired by Quentin Davies, Britain’s junior Defence Minister.

Mr Zacharias, 71, is the first French industry captain to face criminal charges over earnings and faces up to five years in prison and a fine of £336,000.

French bosses are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the two-day trial at the court in Nanterre outside Paris, as a guilty verdict could lead to a wave of prosecutions in France over executive pay.

France is notoriously mistrustful of its patrons, and the country was hit by a wave of “boss-nappings” last year in the wake of the financial crisis.

Under French law, company bosses can be prosecuted for misusing funds. However, this is the first time a case has been brought against someone who appeared to have acted within company rules on pay.

Hailed as France’s boss of the decade by the Harvard Business Review, Mr Zacharias transformed Vinci into a construction powerhouse, raising profits by more than 300 per cent and turnover by 81 per cent in six years.

But in 2006 he was ousted by his number two, and successor, who accused him of corporate greed. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Thursday, March 25, 2010

*We, the British, should follow suit, as should the Americans. In fact, this should happen wherever corporate greed is a problem. What about jailing and punishing severely those fat cat, greedy bankers? Five to ten years in the slammer would do them a world of good. It would sober them up. They would become examples for all the others just waiting to milk (shouldn’t that be cream?) the system. You’d soon find that corporate greed would become a thing of the past if these ‘can’t-get-enough-types’ were put through their paces in clink. Let the show begin! – © Mark

US Cult of Greed Is Now a Global Environmental Threat
THE GUARDIAN: The average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, fuelling a global culture of excess that is emerging as the biggest threat to the planet, according to a report published today. In its annual report, Worldwatch Institute says the cult of consumption and greed could wipe out any gains from government action on climate change or a shift to a clean energy economy. >>> Suzanne Goldenberg US environment correspondent | Wednesday, January 13, 2009

The Barefaced Greed of Bankers and Their Bonuses Beggars Belief
THE TELEGRAPH: City pockets are bulging with bonuses, says Boris Johnson. Have the banks no shame?

Photo: The Telegraph
If you pressed a rifle into the hand of the man in the street and asked him to choose between two targets – an MP or a banker – who do you think would get the bullet? Tricky, eh? It is hard to know which of these two formerly respectable professions has fallen further in public esteem.

Some people might hesitate, like Buridan's ass, the rifle barrel weaving indecisively between two such luscious hate-objects. Most people would simply call for two bullets.

But then let me ask you a slightly different question. Which of the two species has managed to steer itself most effectively through the crisis? Which type of cockroach has scuttled through the nuclear blast of public disapproval? On the face of it, there is an obvious answer, and it is getting more blatant by the day.

Most of the MPs I know seem to be in a state of nervous collapse. Some of them are on suicide watch. Some of them face the task of sacking their wives and selling the house, or possibly the other way round. Some face penury. Never has Parliament been subjected to such protracted humiliation at the hands of the people.

Then look at the bankers, the bankers whose high-rolling risk-taking triggered the recession that has so exacerbated public rage at MPs. The bankers seem to be waltzing off with a song on their lips and their hands in their pockets – at least, their hands would be in their pockets if they were not stuffed with money. And when I say stuffed, I mean bulging, bursting, ballooning with the biggest bonuses you ever saw.

London estate agents say they cannot believe the wheelbarrows of dosh that are suddenly crashing through their doors. Savills says the number of buyers from the financial services sector has risen by 48 per cent in the third quarter of this year, purely in the expectation of yet another ginormous Christmas bonus.

A knuckle-cracking realtor in Knight Frank's Kensington office says he has never seen anything like it: email after email from the boys and girls at Goldman Sachs. "We did our first Goldman's deal in June," he tells the FT, "and we are now doing five times as many for its employees as for any other bank." >>> Boris Johnson | Monday, October 19, 2009

Bankers Are ‘Socially Useless’, Declares Head of City Watchdog
DAILY MAIL: The head of the financial watchdog has launched a stinging attack on bankers, mocking City traders and attacking their refusal to accept that the industry needs radical change.

Just weeks after declaring much of bankers' work 'socially useless', Lord Turner delivered a new broadside at a Mansion House banquet last night attended by the great and good of the Square Mile.

He told them the industry's collapse had been 'cooked up' on trading floors where workers earned exorbitant bonuses that regular victims of the recession could only dream of.

The peer insisted that only a huge transformation would allow banks to restore their reputations and rebuild their trust, such was the harm caused by their over-extension.

And he even went as far as to mock bankers for creating financial instruments that nobody wants or needs.

'No one wakes up on a Saturday morning and says I think I'll go out and buy one of those CDO squareds,' he said, referring to the exotic investments that helped bring the financial system to its knees.

'Banks need to refocus their energies, not on those over-complex products of no use to humanity... but on their core functions of providing savings and credit and payment products to customers.'

The atmosphere at the lavish banquet noticeably cooled as the peer spoke and he was even heckled three times about bonuses paid to FSA staff.

'Probably 60 per cent of the people in this room would willingly shoot Lord Turner over that speech,' one guest said afterwards, according to the Financial Times.

Within seconds of starting to speak, the FSA chairman made clear he had no intention of taking back his 'socially useless' claim made last month - for which he was branded a 'heretic' by City figures. 'I will not be recanting this evening', he said.

Lord Turner rejected accusations that he had undermined the industry's competitiveness with his earlier comments.

'It is not my job as chairman of the financial regulator to be the industry's cheerleader,' he declared pointedly.

He continued: 'British citizens will be burdened for many years with either higher taxes or cuts in public services because of an economic crisis... cooked up in trading rooms where many people earned annual bonuses equal to a lifetime's earnings of some of those suffering the consequences.'

He told bank bosses they needed to realise some activities - although profitable - are so unlikely to have a social benefit that they 'should voluntarily walk away from them'.

'Not all financial innovation is valuable, not all trading activity plays a useful role, and a bigger financial system is not necessarily a better one,' he said.

The peer - who used to be a banker - conceded that this might mean bank investments becoming more boring but said 'after the last year, there's a lot to be said for boring'.

He attacked those who wanted to pretend as if 'the near-death experience' of the last year had never happened. Returning to business as usual and risking a similar crisis was not an option, he insisted.

He also strongly endorsed the idea of linking bankers' pay to higher levels of capital held by banks so that they are never so exposed again.

The fresh attack left senior City figures fuming. >>> | Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Greed Is God Again, and We Have Learned Nothing
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: New Zealand's conservative Prime Minister, John Key, a former investment banker, summed up the state of the world financial system brilliantly during a recent visit to Sydney: "Six months ago, The Wall Street Journal came to interview me and asked me if capitalism was dead. Now Goldman Sachs is paying record bonuses."

After a near-death experience, the world financial system is returning to business as usual - only worse.

The Group of 20 countries, meeting at the end of this week in Pittsburgh, is supposed to be restructuring the system so that it "never happens again". Or, as Barack Obama put it last week: "We will not go back to the days of reckless behaviour and unchecked excess that was at the heart of this crisis."

But we already are. Even if the G20 succeeds in every aspect of its well-intentioned agenda this week, the two greatest systemic problems stand unchanged and uncorrected.

The big investment banks, and Goldman Sachs is the biggest of them, have feasted on public money and, now, restored to strength, are throwing themselves back into the markets as recklessly as ever - only more so.

The big US investment banks are not just symbolic of the greed and excess of the pre-crisis craze. They were instrumental. They created, sold and traded the derivatives the world later came to know as "toxic assets''. But now, after restoring themselves with emergency government loans, they have repaid the US Treasury and rushed back into the markets. Goldman reported a record profit for the three months to the end of June of $US3.4 billion ($3.9 billion).

And the company - where average employee pay is $US700,000 - set aside a record $US11.4 billion for staff bonuses for the first half of the year alone. Guess where the firm made its biggest profit? From trading all the Treasury bonds the US Government issued to pay for the $US787 billion stimulus it injected into the economy to save it from the financial crisis.

Criticism of its bonuses sent Goldman's chief, Lloyd Blankfein (2007 salary plus bonus: $US70 million), out to give a contrite speech. But behind the facade, his firm was betting the bank once again. >>> Peter Hartcher* | Tuesday, September 22, 2009

*Peter Hartcher is the Herald's international editor and author of Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing Seven Trillion Dollars

Greed! Sheer Greed!
TIMES ONLINE: The City watchdog was accused of giving banks a green light to continue paying multimillion-pound bonuses yesterday when it backed away from introducing tough rules to curb excess pay.

The Financial Services Authority’s proposals on City pay embarrassed Gordon Brown, who had promised to sweep aside the bonus culture in the financial sector. Opposition politicians branded the FSA’s new proposals a capitulation. The Treasury also indicated that they did not go far enough.

Some of the most onerous provisions in the FSA’s original proposals from March have been softened. Under the new guidelines the banks must link risk and reward. But they will have more freedom to structure bonus packages than was previously suggested and many bank executives and some smaller City firms are excluded from the plan altogether.

The row came as unemployment rose to a 14-year high and the Bank of England admitted that the recession was deeper than previously thought and that recovery would be slow, partly because banks were still not lending enough money.

It will be exacerbated by the disclosure that Royal Bank of Scotland, in which taxpayers have a 70 per cent interest, has hired two bankers on multimillion-pound packages. One of them, Antonio Polverino, who has been headhunted from Merrill Lynch, will earn £7 million in his first year. Watchdog 'gives green light' for huge City bonuses >>> Philip Webster, Political Editor, and Katherine Griffiths, Banking Editor | Thursday, August 13, 2009

Banks Defend Bonus Culture as Profits Jump
THE GUARDIAN: Barclays and HSBC made a passionate defence of the City's bonus culture yamid [sic] a growing public backlash about the return to a big pay bonanza barely a year after the government bailed out the financial system.

As criticism of bonuses crossed the traditional political divide, the banks compared their high-flyers to footballers and Hollywood stars to try to explain the need for the hundreds of thousands of pounds individuals are expected to receive this year. Neither bank gave figures about potential bonuses for investment banking staff, but a jump in profits in both operations led to speculation that huge pay deals will be awarded.

Profits at Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of the high street bank, doubled to £1bn while at HSBC's investment bank the profits rose 125% to $6.3bn. Each bank reported overall profits of nearly £3bn despite a combined £13bn of bad debts caused by rising unemployment, making it more difficult for households and companies to pay back loans. Bank shares jumped sharply, pushing the FTSE 100 to its highest level this year.

John Varley, chief executive of Barclays, turned to footballers to explain bankers' pay while Stuart Gulliver, who runs the investment bank at HSBC, used Hollywood stars. Varley said: "The football analogy certainly goes some way I think [to explain bonuses] ... There is simply no higher priority that to ensure we field the very best people. That in a sense is exactly the same as a football manager if they are going to win. Our obligation is to ensure we pay appropriately."

Gulliver likened the situation to a Hollywood studio that not only paid stars for pulling in profits, but also many of the extras. "If a foreign exchange trader makes a deal then they know two days later how much they made. If it's a £5m profit, that is something we can count, we can see it, its real. And they are part of a successful team," he said. >>> Jill Treanor and Phillip Inman | Monday, August 03, 2009

The Seven Evils That Scar British Society: Report Blames Greed and Moral Collapse
Evils: The report found that large numbers of people in Britain cared only for money. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL ONLINE: Britain is beset by seven social evils that undermine all the good brought by prosperity, one of the country's leading research groups said yesterday.

Greed, collapsing moral values and the decline of old-fashioned virtues such as honesty and tolerance were named as blights on the lives of millions.

The abuse of drink and drugs, the permanence of poverty, the failure of political institutions and the breakdown of the family are also scourges that deeply worry most of the population, the group said.

The report was produced by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation - whose work is closely studied by Labour leaders - after consultation with 3,500 people.

It comes more than a century after the group's founder, a Quaker and chocolate maker from York, called for efforts to 'search out the underlying causes of weakness or evil in the community', and identified seven of his own.
The group said that while many of today's problems can be solved, social evils run deeper and are 'something more complex, menacing and indefinable'.

They 'imply a degree of scepticism, realism or despair over whether any remedy can be found', the report added.

It said some evils, such as alcohol abuse, are the same as those familiar when Joseph Rowntree set up the Foundation in 1904.

Others are a more modern phenomenon, in particular the concern about family breakdown and its impact on the way children are brought up. >>> By Steve Doughty | Thursday, June 11, 2009