Now Tapu Misa is beating the give-the-In-Work-tax-credit-to-beneficiary-families drum.
And more generally, reducing child poverty requires more robbing Peter to pay Paul.
The first demand will not be met. It wasn't met under Labour. And it sure as heck isn't going to be met under National.
Lifting the income of families with children can be addressed through work, or through benefits. If it is done through the benefit system then the result is large numbers of workless households.
If it is addressed through paid work, the goal of the Welfare Working Group, the result is a better economy and the re-establishing of personal responsibility as a common value.
Children in families with work do better than children with families on benefits despite both being on low incomes.
Children in families that work suffer the least abuse or neglect.
Children in families that work grow up with similar expectations for themselves.
But I have said it all before.
Question that Tapu Misa might like to address in some future column. Asian children are the poorest in New Zealand. They must be because their parents have the lowest incomes. Why aren't they beset with educational failure, poor physical and mental health and headed for drug and alcohol problems?
Asians have the lowest median incomes from all sources yet also the lowest incomes from government transfers. What is that telling us?
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4 comments:
Which government has a better record of having people in paid work - National or Labour?
Also which government haws done more for Maori - National or Labour?
Off topic Lindsay but I got a 'Malware Detected' warning coming to your site today, it said it was because of content from ellisnz.com - might pay to check that out.
Lindsay said...
Why aren't they (asians) beset with educational failure, poor physical and mental health and headed for drug and alcohol problems?
One of the main reason is that there is a constant reinforcement negative message to us islanders & Maoris by stupid writers like Tapu Misa (and her ilk - unemployable Sue Bradford) that say that we're always going to be a victim in a capitalistic society (such as NZ). They say, we were born to be average and not achieve anything. We're born to be on welfare. We're born & destine to be factory workers and can’t be scientists, engineers or lawyers, etc,…. We're born to be low-wage earners therefore we will always struggle. We're born to, blah, blah, blah,..., all those negative messages.
Such negative messages which are quite discouraging start to sink in to the minds of islanders/Maoris, and become reinforcing. The results would be that, self-motivation is out the window, since islanders/Maoris do become self-believed in them. They won't bother trying harder to better themselves, since in their minds, they're always destined to not do any better and nothing can be done about it.
My advice to Tapu Misa. As an islander myself, you should resign yourself from trying to be a messiah of hope for us. Stop writing non-inspiring messages in the media as if your irrelevant opinions will lift motivations for us. You’re useless opinions, is what reinforces the negatives in the minds of islanders. Get out to the community and teach young women (who are @ risk of teen pregnancy) how to do lalanga ta’ovala. You may inspire them.
What you do in reinforcing negative messages is quite devastating for the community. What if you do what I do? I take Tongan children of the so called disadvantage families (economic & education-wise) from the community and helped them in their education (science & math). I have taken kids (@ both high-school & university level) and coached them to pass, which if they hadn’t received help, they were destined to fail.
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I have seen lots of kids coming to me, where the negative messages of believing that they are hopeless in advancing further to higher level in their education which had been reinforced from their parents in their homes. I had to cleansed these kids from (negative) thinking that they won’t achieve anything before they get into my tutorial program, i.e., I had to get them to unlearn all the negative perceptions of themselves that they’re not going to achieve anything in life. I tell them to aim for doctorates/PhDs in science & engineering. I set the targets higher for them to swim to, which there is no doubt in my mind that such positive encouragement from me does inspire them to achieve higher and that’s a good thing.
The other reason that Asian aren’t failed in education is because there isn't any stupid Asian writers like Tapu Misa, who constantly whines in the Herald about being poor as if it is someone's faults, thus reinforces the negatives into their minds. The sooner Tapu Misa, disappears from the Herald, the better since Islanders won’t hear any negative reinforcing messages from her. Tapu Misa should stop being a ponce and being self exaggerated importance and get out to the community and see if she can help to alleviate poverty from those struggled families, which she thinks that she’s speaking on their behalf. Your writing is doing more harm than good (ie, you made islanders to become self-believe that they won’t ever achieve anything).
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