a quick post to direct you to a rare piece that has something positive to say about single mums and beneficiaries:
The two-dollar heroes bagging her out make me sick. You roll in here with your lynch ropes and your nail-studded clubs screaming for vengeance against some woman you think dudded you out of your hard-earned. Two words. Bull and shit. You paid about one tenth of 1 per cent of bugger all to keep her children fed when she couldn't find work.
[...]
If a woman like Sandra Reynolds needs a hand up via the welfare system when she's at her lowest point, I'm happier to see my tax dollars spent on her than I am on the middle-class welfare you've probably got your hands out for. Your baby bonuses. Your family tax benefits. Your private school subsidies. Your superannuation tax breaks. Your private health insurance rebates. Your first-home owner schemes. Shall we go on?
The attack on Reynolds reminded me of a Henry Kissinger quip about academic in-fighting. The fighting is vicious because the stakes are so low. There are so many other, worthier, targets than a single mum who used the long, dark teatime of unemployment to fashion herself a slightly alternative income stream. News flash: that's what welfare does. It helps people until they can help themselves. It didn't fail in the Reynolds case. It wasn't rorted. It did exactly what it was supposed to do, and now she'll pay it all back and then some when the ATO [Australian Tax Office] does its sums at the end of financial year.
please do go read the whole thing. and the comments are worth a read as well. hat tipped to my very cool facebook friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment