Here’s an article that got play on Chris Floyd’s site:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/20/spectre-laissez-faire-haunts-britain

“Pauperism” long ago took on the colour of culpability. The distinction between the idle and improvident poor and the “deserving” goes back at least to the Elizabethan poor law. It took on a new force in the early industrial era, which saw an unprecedented growth in pauperism. The enthusiasts of laissez-faire concluded that the evil was compounded by efforts to relieve it, and helping the poor only increased their number. Everything indicated that “natural” processes should be allowed to take their course. (emphasis added)

Wasn’t the industrial revolution the greatest improvement in the lives of ordinary people in history? Apparently that’s just a capitalist myth according to Seabrook, only the tophat wearers got the money and poor just got to work their hands to the bone.