Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Media Release
WHY THE GAP HAS WIDENED
Wednesday, August 9, 2006

One of the 20 year comparisons from the Ministry of Social Development Social Report 2006 found a widening gap between the "rich" and the "poor".

Welfare commentator Lindsay Mitchell says, "A major reason for the growing percentage of people experiencing hardship is the growth in benefit numbers."

"Twenty years ago 136,485 people were on one of the main benefits - unemployment, invalid, sickness or domestic purposes."

"At June this year the number had grown to 263,814 or 93 percent."

"To put that into context, over the same period the population increased by 25 percent."

"As Maori and Pacific people are over-represented amongst beneficiaries they are disproportionately experiencing hardship."

"There are also over 200,000 children relying on welfare."

"Until the incentives are changed and we stop encouraging people to have and add to their families on welfare, expect inequality to grow."
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2 comments:

backin15 said...

Your argument appears to be that the gap has widened becuase it has widened? Perhaps you might want to distinguish between cause and effect?

4:10 PM
backin15 said...

Brian, I grew up in South Auckland and attended a school that was the poorest of the poor; we can all claim inside knowledge but that's not the point at issue here. Either way, suggesting that people in poverty are demotivated is pretty limited; there's a wealth of very good quality literature that correlates poverty, and particularly poor housing, with lower than average skills, labour market participation, health and so on and so on... these things tend to become mutually reinforcing and trap people in poverty - Lindsay's solution; cut eligibility to benefits (a kind of 1950s approach).

This particular post/media release is little more than a circular argument; the gap between the rich and the poor is widening because more people are on benefits... which is cause, which is effect?

Probably there isn't nearly the causative relationship that Lindsay imagines but as usual, the post merely alludes to a point without actually making one.

5:53 PM

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