Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Down and out in Paris and London
Is a fascinating book by George Orwell, one of my favourite authors. It has probably been the only book after a long time that has had me �hooked on�. It discusses poverty, unemployment, human dignity, and among other things the etymology of the English expletive barnshoot. The interesting thing about the book is that it is in a semi-documentary style�almost like a travel journal or diary; not in form, but in content.
With our central government leaning leftward, this book has quite a few lessons in welfare-state policy. They are mostly about the precise points of failure of well-meaning, but misdirected government initiatives where poverty preservation seems to be the outcome of poverty alleviation measures.

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