The Salvation Army has just released its first ever "State of the Nation" report.
‘More children appear to be at risk of harm, more are engaged in petty crime, there is more violent crime and more people in jails.'
"As a country we have invested hugely in core social spending, from $23b 10 years ago to $39b this year, but with very little increase in social progress. In fact, the gap between rich and poor appears to be widening.While this social spending is essential it seems to have contributed very little to our social progress. Why should be this be the case?"
Could it be that welfare long since stopped majoring in meeting need? It now predominantly creates need. It draws in very young families who get stuck. It offers incentives and subsidies for all the wrong behaviours.
Yet, make no mistake, this outfit wants a bigger welfare state. In 2004 Campbell Roberts, its author, was at a Green Party conference calling for them to eradicate systemic poverty. And we know what the Greens solution to poverty is. More wealth redistribution by the state.
If you do nothing else take a look at the cover of this publication. It features a two-parent, two-child family who couldn't be more different from the people this report is actually about. More self-deception. That's what this paper should be called, "The State of Self-deception in New Zealand Report."
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6 comments:
I am always amazed at people who express surprise over the widening gap between rich and poor in capitalist countries. Isn't it a basic law of economics that money attracts more money?
I stopped donating to the Sallies a few years ago.
In my opinion they are another group of misguided do-gooders who believe any problem can be fixed by throwing money at it, and by the abandonment of individual responsibility.
It doesn't surprise in the slightest to know they are close to the luddite Greens.
Like so many others, their main thrust is to obtain funding(-AKA OUR money), without the bother of asking us nicely first.
"{If you do nothing else take a look at the cover of this publication. It features a two-parent, two-child family who couldn't be more different from the people this report is actually about. More self-deception. That's what this paper should be called, "The State of Self-deception in New Zealand Report."}"
Not unlike airbrushing?
The "gap" is not imporant. If Bill Gates makes a 100 million this week than last and I make $200 more than last week the gap has increased. But so F...king what? How was I harmed? I'm better off. He's better off. This crap about the gap is not the issue. The issue always is the material well being of the individual not if other people have more. To whine about the gap is nothing but envy at work.
As for the Salvation Army -- they are ideologically evil. They are authoritarians through and through. They hate social freedom and they hate economic freedom. People think they are a charity. Rubbish. They are a religious sect that is ultra fundamentalist. So combine the intolerance of the Moral Majority with the economics of the socialists and you have the Salvation Army.
Of course the gap is widening! There wasn't much difference between hunting and gathering - but there is an enormous one between brain surgeon and social policy analyst (or janitor). Are they really that stupid?
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