Rich people may be altruistic

Rich people may fear that one day in the future they may be poor themselves

Rich people may feel redistribution should be left to voluntary donations

Rich people regard redistribution as a public good

Utilitarians believe the government should aim to maximize total utility

Followers of Rawls believe the government should aim to make the person with the lowest original income as well off as possible

With each tax, the higher the rate, the larger the revenue

A government which pursued complete equality of final incomes might leave everyone on very low incomes

On every approach, a doubling of the incomes of all households would reduce the number of people in poverty.

A problem with the absolute approach to poverty is deciding what items to put on the list.

) A problem with the relative approach to poverty is deciding what percentage of average incomes to use

A problem with hybrid approaches to poverty is deciding exactly what to include

More children are in households which find it harder to survive than was the case ten years ago

Many children are in households whose incomes are lower than they were ten years ago

The incomes of poorer families have risen less over the last ten years than the incomes of average families

The very poorest households are poorer than they were ten years ago

The fact that means-tested transfers may create an unemployment trap

The fact that housing is covered by separate benefits

The fact that some people may become benefit-reliant

The fact that some people do not claim benefits to which they are entitled