Wednesday, August 11, 2010

A gift for Goff

The creation of the welfare working group has turned out to be a gift for the left. As the group issues their papers and recommendations Phil Goff can repeatedly return to a tried and trusted refrain, what is the government doing about unemployment? Let's quickly revisit what he said yesterday:


"It's not that people don't want to work; the jobs simply aren't there at the moment and the situation's getting worse."


That is true of some. But not all.

Connie Raiwhara, who runs the Pikorua community house where Ms Heremaia attends a sewing class, said many sole parents had no qualifications and would not give up the benefit for a minimum-wage job.

A sole parent with three young children paying the $332 average rent for a three-bedroom house in Papakura would get $206 in family support and $165 in accommodation supplement on top of the $278 DPB, a total of $649 a week.

"A lot of our solo parents get well in the $700s. They are not going to go from $700 to $400," Ms Raiwhara said.

"Even if you're in a fulltime job on $400-$500 a week [after tax], childcare is $240 a week. You're working to pay for someone else to look after your child.

"Maybe they should put the wages up and maybe that would give people the incentive to go back to work."


This explains why people stay on the DPB even during good economic times. And it's a rational response. Nobody has been taught that welfare is actually supposed to be a last resort. They haven't been taught about the ethics of citizenship or economics. They expect the faceless state to put money into their bank accounts every week. That's just the way it is.

And when I think about that phrase it was also the title of a Bruce Hornsby song from the mid-eighties and referred to coloured people being unable to get jobs due to racial discrimination in the US. Not quite the same problem as we are seeing in NZ today.

7 comments:

Charmaine said...

So what is the answer?? We can't afford the welfare we give these people and we can't raise wages to this level as that will kill off the low skill positions as they move off shore.

So far I have seen alot of moaning about the report by many people but no alternatives.

FFS we can't afford welfare at this level and it is just cruel to keep giving it out till we are too broke to repay the loan and their welfare is just cut off suddenly.

PM of NZ said...

"Maybe they should put the wages up and maybe that would give people the incentive to go back to work"

Always the line "gimme, gimme, gimme more of your money". Never, ever would they consider what really needs to be done. Just a slight change in wording - "Maybe they should slash the benefits and maybe that would give people the incentive to go back to work".

Now that would be an incentive for the producing taxpayers not to join them.

Anonymous said...

We can't afford the welfare we give these people and we can't raise wages to this level as that will kill off the low skill positions as they move off shore.

We zero the welfare. Problem solved. They will look after themselves one way or another or emigrate.

...keep giving it out till we are too broke to repay the loan and their welfare is just cut off suddenly.

look at the budget: we are well past that point. Read the report, we will be borrowing ONE BILLION DOLLARS a week to pay for welfare.

The only solution is to terminate all welfare now. Dole, DPB, SIckness, Invalids, and especially codger-dole (super). By terminating all benefits we are equally fair to ever-bludger.

Anonymous said...

Nobody has been taught that welfare is actually supposed to be a last resort. They haven't been taught about the ethics of citizenship or economics. They expect the faceless state to put money into their bank accounts every week.

Of course not. And you know what - all the nominally-rightwing do-goderism lecturing people or sending them to citizenship courses or lifeskills etc will make no difference.

Because what these 500,000 bludgers are taught, day in and day out is that the state will provide for them and their children and their children's children for ever and ever ake ake ake!

It doesn't matter what we "say".
It only matters what we "do".

The only solution to this - Lindsay - you absolutely must admit is to terminate the benefits

I'd take the whole lot out immediately. That will "teach" the most salutary lesson. I suppose there are arguments for a gradualist approach - although in the current political environment I think they are unsustainable.

but the only lesson, the only way to "teach" is to stop paying them

Oswald Bastable said...

Stop paying welfare.

Put the money back into tax cuts for WORKING people.

Phase this in over five years.

karthikeyan said...

Hello sir, As i am searching for some information i landed in your blog and i am eagerly wish to add your link in blog so that my visitor can get some useful information from your blog. Hence i added your blog link in my list (Blogs i like to read). If you could provide me a link to my blog (http://2daynewsupdates.blogspot.com/), i feel more happy and it would be more useful to me. Please do consider my request to add my link there. Thanks in dvance. http://2daynewsupdates.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Stop paying welfare.

Commonsense.

Put the money back into tax cuts for WORKING people.

There isn't any money. We're borrowing the full cost of today's welfare! If we stop welfare, we can stop borrowing but we can't cut taxes without stopping heath and education too.

And then there is still the matter of NZ' nett debt of something like 96% of NZ's GDP. Selling every state asset overseas isn't even going to make much of a dent in that!

NZ cannot afford tax cuts for a long long time.
But it must cut out direct welfare and indrect welfare (health, education etc) as soon as possible!

Basically: as soon as overseas borrowers realize how indebted in NZ is then we're totally fucked