Monday, May 15, 2006

What to do?

On one hand we wonder about stories like this, where a Turangi teenager kills another and this, where Eltham youths, "thieves, taggers, vandals and thugs" run riot.

On the other we get reports about kids who nobody will provide a home to - not even their own parents.

I'm afraid I don't see anything but our prison population continuing to rise.

5 comments:

Rick said...

Not good enough.

Arrest their past before we have to arrest them. Ditch the socialist system!

Capitalism isn't just about new cars and warmer jumpers, it's about making crap like this history.

Anonymous said...

Hmm, good question, just what do you do for people who get left behind, if not social welfare?

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Anonymous said...

Here was I hoping to come back to a good answer to what you do for the people who are left behind, and I don't see an answer at all.

Brian - why do we have to do something for them? It's called compassion. Or call it self preservation if you like, the fewer people that are so desperate, the better the living conditions for the rest.

And in answer to your question about ever thinking that people caught in the trap of poverty stay that way because they choose to - yes, I did - of course, I myself thought that once. I've since realised that view does not correspond well to real life. I mean, sure, there are plenty of macho dogs in da ghetto who say they luv wackin' dem ho's and all dat - but my experience is that they are mostly covering up their own feelings of inadequacy and quite isolated from their peers - even though they may appear to have many friends. It's something of a childish state of mind that most people grow out of and shy away from once they are out of their teens/early 20s. Much more a product of not having enough education, quality housing, etc in their youth. Of course this isn't my field so I can't back that up with references etc, but I just can't accept that position at all. It's fiction.

This seems like a pretty basic question to the argument against the Welfare state. What is told to the people who are left behind: "Go home and die"?