[buffoon]

I was brought up on a very rough London housing association estate in the 1970s and 1980s.

Most of the people complaining do not know poverty or have anything to compare it to.

Poverty for me was being sent out at the age of 5 to nick milk off people's doorsteps at 6am because the local food canteen was empty the night before and no one would dare kick a child in because the police might actually give a shit then...

[IkmoIkmo]

Again you can't take your single rags to riches or rags to middle class or whatever anecdotal story as evidence of a larger trend. I feel most sociologist who have looked at the numbers and they'll tell you it's not too pretty (although I agree it is often overblown and there are some obvious benefits for poor people in London who can benefit from a city with tons of solid infrastructure, e.g. in education which can be really beneficial).

Anyway I hear a lot from friends in London that the gap between poor and middle class isn't all that bad. The poor get quite a bit of state support and seem to manage with a whole 'lot of compromise, and benefit from the opportunities of a metropolitan city with lots of talent, good schools etc more than say the poor would do in say Glasgow. But for (upper) middle class in London is where it gets tricky because the pricing is upper class, your income is middle class and state support for the middle class is negligible, and then for upper class it's fine as their income matches the city's pricing, their biggest worry is probably a possible housing bubble popping over the next decade, something the lower and probably much of the middle class too might even benefit from.

This is just what I've heard, can you comment on that from your experience?