Joseph and Seebohm's writings about poverty

One of the most significant parts of Joseph’s legacy is his focus on poverty , specifically identification of the root causes of poverty and methods by which these might be tackled. He believed that the public needed urgently to be made aware of these facts and how widespread poverty was throughout the country. Joseph was an early advocate for the existence of the poverty cycle in which people move in and out of poverty during their lifetime. He supported his son, Seebohm’s, work on scientific analysis of poverty in York. For his book, Poverty: A Study of Town Life, Seebohm conducted an analysis of 11.500 families using house to house enquiries to tabulate income and expenditure, demonstrating that much poverty was caused by low incomes and providing hard, statistical evidence for the existence of the poverty cycle. Joseph was very much ahead of his time in his attitude towards poverty and his vision is still relevant, something he would almost certainly be very disappointed about if he were here today. Today the Joseph Rowntree Foundation continues to work to resolve poverty.