Category: Social Issues
Most of today's benefits were created at the point of passing the Social Security Act 1938. During the post-war years benefit levels were reasonably stable despite population growth. For instance between 1940 and 1975 the population grew by 92 percent but receipt of Unemployment, Sickness and Invalid benefits grew by only 9 percent. As a percentage of working-age people, reliance on these benefits actually dropped.
In his book The Vision of the Anointed, economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, Thomas Sowell, describes how the great catastrophes of history have typically resulted not only from ill-advised policies, but from the fact that public feedback cannot get through to decision-makers. He says, “Typically, there has been an additional and crucial ingredient – some method by which feedback from reality has been prevented, so that a dangerous course of action could be blindly continued to a fatal conclusion. Much of the continent of Europe was devastated in World War II because the totalitarian regime of the Nazis did not permit those who foresaw the self-destructive consequences of Hitler’s policies to alter, or even influence, those policies.”
I'm appalled that Mr Key thinks he is above the people and that his past promises (not to change the law) are more important than their wishes. Political parties are elected to govern the country according to the wishes of the majority. That's how democracy is supposed to work. In some circumstances, the majority view will be uninformed and the government may make laws that they think will provide a better result for society. But this is NOT one of those situations. I'm further appalled that he thinks that it's OK for him to just tell police how to enforce a law as has been reported in the news. That's not his or their job. It's his job to make laws that he thinks are correct and it's the police's job to enforce them without fear or favour. Then the courts decide if the police are correctly interpreting the law. The law is clearly against the wishes of the, by now, well-informed majority and MUST be changed or repealed. - a reader’s response to last week’s poll where 98% of informed NZCPR readers believe that the present anti-smacking law should be repealed.
We place a lot of weight on the word of authority figures, especially if they have qualifications and can call on supporting research. The media often report on research as if the findings are points of fact. Is this confidence misplaced?
The public have spoken. 87.6 percent of New Zealanders want the law that has banned smacking changed. They want to go back to the common sense situation that existed before Parliament saw fit to pass Sue Bradford’s repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act into law.
A review of the NZ Families Commission Research Report...
The recent furore over the generosity of income support paid to sole parents on the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) is symptomatic of an undercurrent of discontent within our society. Put bluntly, taxpayers are sick and tired of supporting people who could and should be working for a living. To their credit, National appears to be listening.
John Key has told the country he doesn't want to see any 16 or 17 year-olds on the benefit, a sentiment I am sure will find a good deal of sympathy, especially among National voters. The problem is, only the Independent Youth Benefit has been mentioned. That is the benefit usually available to unemployed youth.
A truly free society is one that releases the energies and creativity and abilities of everyone. It prevents some people from arbitrarily suppressing others. Freedom means diversity, but also mobility. It enables today’s disadvantaged to become tomorrow’s privileged, and, in the process, enables everyone from top to bottom, to enjoy a fuller and richer life. - Free to Choose, by Milton and Rose Friedman
Truancy is a societal disease; which left untreated spreads and affects the social, physical, judicial and economic well being within our communities. Every day over 25,000 children are absent from our schools, which is approximately 4.1% of the school population (AND this is increasing). A minority of these young people are chronic truants who hang-out in small groups causing havoc within their community. This group has been linked to theft, burglary, property damage, graffiti, car conversion and assault.
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