Wednesday, September 15, 2010

"Lifestyle choice is going to come to an end"

Will we ever hear Treasurer Bill English saying this?

"People think it's a lifestyle choice just to stay on out-of-work benefits; that lifestyle choice is going to come to an end."


Of course just exactly how UK Chancellor George Osborne plans to bring it to an end is not at all clear. This won't cut it.

When Clinton vowed to "...end welfare as we know it" he carried through on the promise.

Still I suppose even publicly acknowledging the lifestyle choice is progress.

9 comments:

pdm said...

The more I see of George Osborne the more he impresses me.

He is focused and has vision.

Anonymous said...

No anti-welfare post is complete without totally ignoring the additional changes to (in the very least) tax laws if you wanted to cut benefits and avoid either social unrest, increased crime or slavery.

But that's the thing with the flippant cut 'n' slash brigade. They don't give shit about anything but money. Interestingly, they're the first to wail like bubs when their narcissitic morality is transgressed.

KG said...

"They don't give shit about anything but money."
Nonsense. Those who advocate a more rigorous approach to welfare abuse are concerned with the corrosive effect welfare has on family life, on hopelessness and drug abuse, on children being brought up as strangers to the work ethic.
Certainly, the monetary cost of welfare matters, but the social costs are at least as important.

Anonymous said...

lifestyle choice for ben efit bluggers is far from comming to an end.
Yesterday thbe bloke next door who is on an invalids benefit walked the Manawatu Gorge track and said everyone should experience the rugged nature of new Zealands outdoors firsthand.
he is unable to work because he was beaten up after he attempted to rip off a hard working hooker in Woodville.

Today he is busy doing some cash jobs for his mates.

Long live the cash society.

Dirk

Anonymous said...

it's a bit of an irony to talk about not giving a crap about money when welfare recipients-- or shall I say parasites---live on other people's wages, also known as "benefits" because they have "needs". How much money has been redistributed to those welfare queens? How much money has been drained from other people's incomes to help them?

And after all of that we are somehow narcissistic because we don't want to support the altruists and their welfare bunch or the miseries they have created for themselves and the rest of society.

it is your likes who only care about money and become squeamish when their beloved "benefits" are stripped away from them.

Anonymous said...

How is National going to undo forty-odd years of Welfare dependence and expentancy? The system is entrenched, general wages are low and the jobs are just not there. Do single mothers and their kids just starve?

Anonymous said...

if you wanted to cut benefits and avoid either social unrest, increased crime or slavery.

Social Unrest and Increased Crime can best be dealt with simply by arming the police - and giving them the legal basis to do their jobs.

We have a huge deficit to pay off - we simply can't afford tax cuts - even if we totally eliminated welfare, we'd stop going deeper into debt: we wouldn't start paying anything off!


How is National going to undo forty-odd years of Welfare dependence and expentancy?

Especially with the Enabling Act now passed, you take an order in council to the govenor-general zeroing all benefit rates from the dole to the DBP to the pension. It is less than one page and the legal work can be done in about an hour. Additional legislation would be required to liquidate WINZ and
terminate all employment contracts - but again, the enabling act we have in place today - and the need to pay for repairing Christchurch makes this a very easy option.

Do single mothers and their kids just starve

They have the choice to go to work. It really is that simple.

Anonymous said...

When Clinton vowed to "...end welfare as we know it" he carried through on the promise.

Oh what rubbish!! Clinton was a democrat, liberal, coward, traitor, and should have been impeached. There are now more people on welfare in the US than when Clinton was president - showing that he ended nothing

The Tea Party will end welfare: the democrats - never.


To be far - what GWBush managed is that the average welfare benefit in Texas is $68. That's NZD93. The NZ Dole is $221!!

But that's not the big surprise.

The NZ dole is per week

Texas dole is PER MONTH

Richard McGrath said...

Anon @ 7.40 pm: Clinton did introduce limits on the time one could spend on state benefits, did he not?

Funnily enough, a book I have just read, assessing U.S. presidents from a constitutionalist persepective, rated Bill Clinton as either 11th or 14th (I can't remember which) best president and Jimmy Carter as 8th. Ronald Reagan and Thomas Jefferson were rated in the 'bad' category, both in the bottom 10 out of about 40!