The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a leftist charity, says that a single man needs a bare minimum of £13,400 – about $26,000 – just to “participate in society” in Britain today.

The basis of this figure is very dubious. As usual with these things, the list of what is “essential” seems to be compiled by people who have never been seriously poor, treating as necessity many things which the real poor would view as luxuries.

At the same time, it seriously underestimates the real costs we pay for our accommodation and health-related expenses, and the real necessity of convenient broadband connection.

Yet the real objection to such research is the implication of “entitlement” that underlies it. Predictably, it is accompanied by calls to increase the minimum wage.

Entrepreneurs understand that there is no entitlement to anything in this world.

If someone is to spend twenty six thousand, someone must earn it. That single man must earn it himself or get someone else to earn it for him.

That means a product or service must be sold – and, ideally, delivered – and the money actually paid for every penny of that twenty six grand, plus business expenses and taxes of course.

Entrepreneurs understand this because we have never had a guarantee of twenty six thousand net or anything else. Most of us, as some point, especially in the early stages of a business, have had to live on a great deal less, sometimes nothing at all.

We know that the real bare minimum on which a single man can survive is whatever he has in his pocket plus hope.