The great urbanist Jane Jacobs was never one to hedge her opinions with ifs and buts. ‘To seek causes of poverty is to enter an intellectual dead end because poverty has no causes,’ she thundered in The economy of cities. ‘Only prosperity has causes.’ If only Joseph Rowntree had known, before donating his fortune to a foundation dedicated to discovering the causes of poverty. Think of the academics who could have found gainful employment investigating how to successfully manufacture widgets instead. Julian Dobson, editorial director, New Start Online magazine