Let's eradicate poverty in 2022

Message of the Socialist Party in the elections to Alþingi September 25, 2021:Sixth offer to voters presented July 13:ERADICATE POVERTY IN 2022

The best way to improve society is to improve the situation of those who have suffered most due to injustice, inequality, and powerlessness. This is not complicated, in fact the same principle applies as when you want to fix a broken clock. You fix the things that don't work. It is therefore clear which groups the public sector should first support, strengthen, and uplift. These are the poorest, the people who suffer most from society's injustice.

Iceland is a rich country in resources, and since few people live here, we are for that reason a wealthy nation. These two things, wealth and small population, make it easy for us to eradicate poverty from society. We lack nothing. Other than the mindset.

In recent decades, all emphasis has been placed on improving the conditions of the best-off, lowering taxes on the rich, strengthening capital and business owners, and yielding to their demands. If we reverse this and attend to the demands of the poor, relieve them of the burdens and pressures of a crushing struggle for life, we will not only succeed in eradicating poverty but also succeed in strengthening and empowering society as a whole.

Studies have shown that equality not only improves the conditions of the worst-off but also increases trust and security in society, reduces crime, promotes citizen activity, and extends life and general health. And equality also strengthens the economy and business life, builds resilience in companies and society, and makes the economic system more capable of facing crises.

It is equally clear that society has enough strength to eradicate poverty. There is enough. The Treasury has the capacity to finance measures against poverty, and no measures are as urgent and none will yield us as much benefit. In some cases, this involves shifting the tax burden, from the poor to the rich, but in others, these are measures that yield so much profit that it is appropriate for the state to print money to cover them or take a loan from the Central Bank.

The eradication of poverty should therefore not only be the goal of the poor but of everyone in society. Those who do not struggle with poverty day to day will reap a much better society without all the pain that accompanies poverty, helplessness, anxiety, and shame imposed on the poor.

The Socialist Party therefore proposes several clear and simple measures to eradicate poverty from Icelandic society, measures that will take effect as soon as a majority is formed in Alþingi to push them through.

SEVEN KEYS TO THE ERADICATION OF POVERTYI. Let's stop taxing povertyIt is both foolish and immoral to collect taxes from people whose income is so low that they cannot support themselves. It should be investigated what the minimum subsistence level for individuals and families is, and taxation of income falling below that should be banned. If housing costs for each taxpayer need to be taken into account, it should be done.

II. No one with less than minimum wagePensioners, disabled people, unemployed, students, and those on municipal support do not have the strike weapon to fight for their conditions. The incomes of these groups shall therefore be based at a minimum on the lowest agreed wage conditions in the labor market.

III. Children have no income and therefore cannot bear any expensesChildren need to be specially protected from poverty. Children have no income, and it is therefore absurd to charge them for healthcare, education, leisure, transport, or anything else that can be classified as services to which all children are entitled. Children should receive a personal tax allowance like adults, so that a family's personal allowance is proportional to the number of family members.

IV. Free healthcareIll health, accidents, or crises should not undermine people's finances. It is enough that people struggle with the diseases themselves, the consequences of accidents and crises, and the loss of income that follows, without health and medical institutions adding to the crises and charging the sick. We should pay for healthcare when we are healthy and in the workforce, not when we have become sick and infirm.

V. The Housing Revolution: 30 thousand apartments in ten yearsAffordable and secure housing is a prerequisite for all welfare and healthcare services. Financial support for those living with rent gouging burns up in the housing market. Personal support and empowerment for those living with constant existential anxiety does not work. The fundamental prerequisite for building a robust welfare system here, which in turn is a prerequisite for eradicating poverty, is a major effort in the construction of social housing. Socialists propose a housing revolution where 30 thousand social apartments will be built across the country in the next ten years.

VI. Let's protect tenants from profiteersMost low-income people in the rental market are squeezed between low incomes and exorbitant rent. To protect these people until the construction of social housing has permanently lowered rental prices, a rent cap must be imposed to stop the gouging, housing benefits must be increased so that no one pays more than a quarter of their income in housing costs, and laws on tenancy must be enacted to ensure tenants' security and protection. These laws should, for example, stipulate that tenant organizations are a party to negotiations on rental prices.

VII. Let's build up civil society organizationsThe best way to ensure justice and equality in society is for the public to organize their advocacy in trade unions and other civil society organizations. The state should encourage and strengthen such organizations. To protect the poor from the counter-attack of capital, strong tenant organizations, organizations of pensioners, students and unemployed, organizations of immigrants and children, organizations of people on municipal support, patients, debtors and consumers are needed. Strong such organizations are a prerequisite for building a just society here. Public advocacy organizations should become the main partner of the state and take the place of the interest groups of the rich and powerful.

Sixth offer of the Socialists to voters 2021: Let's eradicate poverty in 2022

The sixth offer of the socialists to voters for the Alþingi elections this autumn regarding the eradication of poverty is about stopping the taxation of poverty, that no one has an income lower than the minimum wage, that children will not be charged for essential services and will receive a personal tax allowance, that healthcare will be free of charge and financed through the tax system, that 30 thousand social apartments will be built in the next ten years, that tenants will be specially protected from gouging and insecurity and that civil society organizations of the less well-off will be strengthened to maintain strong advocacy and build justice within society.

All of these are self-evident and reasonable demands that a large majority of the nation should be able to support. It is in everyone's interest that poverty be eradicated. It is nowhere acceptable, and least of all in the wealthiest societies on Earth. It is our duty as Icelanders to eradicate poverty from our society and to assist other societies in doing the same.

Approved at a joint meeting of the executive and policy committees of the Socialist Party June 12, 2021