Europe ‘does not care’ about the poor: Economist

There is “a total lack of concern” for the poor people in Europe, an economist tells Press TV, amid reports of the potential mismanagement of the current economic crisis – particualrly the issue of homelessness – by European governments.

“The [politico-economic] system actually puts its money into bankrupt banks and into rising asset prices – share prices and housing prices – and does not put the money into the creation of productive capacity and into jobs,” Rodney Shakespeare told Press TV in an interview on Monday.

“At the same time, there is a total lack of concern now for the poor people… throughout the European community,” said Shakespeare, who is a professor of Binary Economics.

The remarks come as a report, published by the British daily the Guardian last Sunday, said more than 11 million houses are empty in Europe while millions of people are in a dire need of housing across the continent.

The report said there are over 3.4 million vacant houses only in Spain. France and Italy come next, each having about 2 million houses unoccupied. There are also some 1.8 million and 700,000 vacant residences across Germany and the UK respectively.

“This is a shocking indictment of the way the system works – or rather, does not work,” Shakespeare said in reference to the revelations in the report.

“These houses must be put onto the market – must be forced onto the market. At the same time, we must open up the European Central bank for an interest-free supply to build more houses for people,” he said.

According to statistics by the European Union (EU), there are currently about 4.1 million homeless people across Europe.

Many European countries plunged into a financial crisis in early 2008. The worsening debt crisis has forced the EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which in return have caused hardships for and protests by citizens.