This week, headline after headline bitched about the new 'free' school lunch programme. Principals apparently compared the meals to 'dog food'. There were numerous teething problems with delivery. KidsCan jumped on the bandwagon to promote child poverty and useless government yet again.
It beggars belief really. Parents are already paid cash every week to help them take care of their children. Family Tax Credits are for low-income or beneficiary families tapering off as a parent's income increases. Before I lay those out, here's a cost breakdown of a lunch I would make and eat myself (maybe omitting the biscuits): a couple of ham and cheese Molenberg sandwiches, a couple of Tim Tams and an apple. Throw in a Just Juice and the weekly cost, purchased from Pak'nSave, for two children, would be $57.31.
Broken down:
Obviously, a couple of vegemite sandwiches and plain biscuits would cost a lot less.
Anyway, here's what a low-income family with two children receives weekly to spend on their children's needs:
School lunches are already well-catered for with $261.86 cash assistance.
Parents are double-dipping.
The complicit schools cry "hungry children can't learn" forcing the state to step in and giving lazy parents ample opportunity to renege on their own obligation.
If the parent refuses to provide the lunch that the government has already paid for then the cost should be deducted from their family tax credits.
If parents are allowed to assume less and less responsibility for their children, no good will come of it. The balance gets ever more tipped towards all rights and no responsibilities. As a society we need to be heading in the other direction.
When Family Tax Credits were introduced, National and ACT opposed them. In government, they accepted them. When free school lunches were suggested National and ACT opposed. Now a decade later, National and ACT accept them.
Look how far we have traveled in a short space of time.
While school lunches may seem small-beer to some, they are a marker of a society steadily moving away from personal responsibility. And that's not trivial.
8 comments:
"Well said Lindsay.. The attitude of "you owe me," and "rutting like crazed weasels" with no personal responsibility is becoming far too prevalent nowadays.
You are so right Lindsay.
Personal responsibility is at the core of most problems we have in NZ including health, alcohol and drug consumption, smoking, school lunches, poverty………
I spoke to a person suggesting he get help from his Iwi. His answer was “No the government can pay”
There is an automatic expectation for others to take responsibility for individuals problems and we the tax payer enable that attitude.
I realise, now I'm an Anarchist, that all the politicians are up to mischief. If they can capture any institution and make it 'theirs' then will. Or, if not, they destroy it no matter if it is making money or doing good. Control is the only thing.
Another easy rule is: "The delegation of particular tasks to technical bodies, while a regular feature, is yet only the first step in the process whereby a democracy relinquishes its powers." - Friedrich Hayek (paraphrased)
Foolish people are constantly begging The State to make things into political institutions. They don't understand that this only makes them playthings for this game of political football. We should depoliticise everything and not stop until government it out of lunch and everything else too.
Or, for the Libertarian, at least start with a sunset clause every time a new bit of humanity is appropriated into yet another government program!
Ref. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcZenmsFWGA
The government policy of feeding kids in schools is a dog, created by Arderns warped "kindness" well meaning - but does great damage - thinking, and loved by her kindred spirits, the middle class legacy media, who imagine what it must be like for those poor parents.
The more it persists the more the government proves its ill placed for such wasteful largesse. The early forerunner was food banks that act as a budgeting alternative and have never stopped growing, because of the warped middle class beliefs that a person's pride and dignity would self police the scheme. Wrong!
I suspect ACT loathe it, but Luxons National has embraced this badly thought out policy, because they are cut from the same cloth as their near identical siblings, Labour. So it has no hope of ending.
Sure, a small budget for schools to provide food for those who truly need it, matched to another government agency finding out exactly why a parent cannot do the very basics, but the carte blanche should be binned. Like the vast majority of the food provided but never eaten!
Some would say governments are the enemy of the people, and I have to say it is becoming increasingly difficult to argue against this. How do we address this ? As Mark Twain said, "If voting changed anything they'd make it illegal". I believe the rot starts at the top and politicians get away with much that the ordinary person would consider dishonest, at best. A good first step would be to have the ability to hold politicians responsible, not just in their professional capacity but their private as well. The poli's create dependency and one result is school lunches. BTW Lindsay, that food selection you present is dodgy - maybe a couple of items might be OK but why biscuits & juice for a start ?
Personal responsibility and consequences. Two of life's important tenents. Completely ignored today!
Do you mean tenets ?
Parenting 101 provide for your children, a sandwich and some fruit are not an expensive investment for your kids, stop with the lazy hand out for freebies!
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