Shameless is a successful TV series featuring what is colloquially termed an underclass family. So it was interesting to hear its writer Paul Abbott talk about poverty recently.
He asserted that it was increasingly not just a matter of lack of material possessions and it's well accepted that people can be materially better off, but still suffer the stigma of poverty in terms of aspiration and opportunity.
But his most thought-provoking idea was that the first thing they do when they have any money is to buy clothes and accoutrements (he cited Burberry) in an attempt to appear not to be in poverty. The irony of this, in his words, is that this has the reverse effect.
The glib lesson is that people see through the superficial, but I think there is something much more significant here. As yet, however, I'm not sure what it is.
Photo courtesy of www.mrpaparazzi.com
