Post by Kiwi Frontline on Sept 24, 2021 9:56:22 GMT 12
WELFARE – Michael Bassett
The following column was written in May, 2002. It's as relevant today and worth revisiting. Michael Bassett served on the Waitangi Tribunal from 1994 to 2004.
Everywhere in the developed world the payment of welfare benefits to people of working age causes problems. Benefits trap them: if they try to better themselves, the benefit is soon reduced; but to stay on welfare is to settle for second class incomes and lifestyles. Gaps between those on welfare and those in employment inevitably widen. Yet the lure of easy money is seductive: whereas 3% of working age people received welfare in 1975, more than 14% do nowadays, despite more jobs being available, and today's buoyant economy. Increasing numbers try to improve lifestyles by crime.
It wasn't always like this. Before the 1970s, governments were reluctant to pay money without work. Political opposites like Peter Fraser and Apirana Ngata warned against a welfare culture, arguing it would encourage crime and alcoholism. Satan, they said, would find work for idle hands. Work schemes employed those having difficulty getting jobs. During the 1970s welfare gradually became a lifestyle option. Jenny Shipley's government introduced a requirement that the able-bodied seek jobs, but Helen Clark's government, true to its 1970s ideals, abolished it.
Today the largest group on welfare is Maori. The contraction in public sector jobs and work schemes, plus the abolition of any work requirement saw more Maori opt for welfare, just as Fraser and Ngata predicted. In remote parts of the East Coast where I visited last week, as many as 80% are beneficiaries. Shops are boarded up, and school attendance is spasmodic. Crime abounds. But its proceeds will never completely close gaps.....
www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/welfare
The following column was written in May, 2002. It's as relevant today and worth revisiting. Michael Bassett served on the Waitangi Tribunal from 1994 to 2004.
Everywhere in the developed world the payment of welfare benefits to people of working age causes problems. Benefits trap them: if they try to better themselves, the benefit is soon reduced; but to stay on welfare is to settle for second class incomes and lifestyles. Gaps between those on welfare and those in employment inevitably widen. Yet the lure of easy money is seductive: whereas 3% of working age people received welfare in 1975, more than 14% do nowadays, despite more jobs being available, and today's buoyant economy. Increasing numbers try to improve lifestyles by crime.
It wasn't always like this. Before the 1970s, governments were reluctant to pay money without work. Political opposites like Peter Fraser and Apirana Ngata warned against a welfare culture, arguing it would encourage crime and alcoholism. Satan, they said, would find work for idle hands. Work schemes employed those having difficulty getting jobs. During the 1970s welfare gradually became a lifestyle option. Jenny Shipley's government introduced a requirement that the able-bodied seek jobs, but Helen Clark's government, true to its 1970s ideals, abolished it.
Today the largest group on welfare is Maori. The contraction in public sector jobs and work schemes, plus the abolition of any work requirement saw more Maori opt for welfare, just as Fraser and Ngata predicted. In remote parts of the East Coast where I visited last week, as many as 80% are beneficiaries. Shops are boarded up, and school attendance is spasmodic. Crime abounds. But its proceeds will never completely close gaps.....
www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/welfare