Thursday, January 03, 2013
Live on the dole?
The Australian gov't is trying to introduce a welfare reform plan, somewhat parallel if not similar to Bill & Newt's 1996 reform. The American version drew protests by the usual Commie suspects, but in the end it unquestionably worked. Lots of people who had been stuck on welfare rediscovered work and lived better.
This clip from Australia's channel 7 takes the side of the usual suspects. The specific dispute started when one gov't minister declared that she could live on the proposed $35/day. All the usual commies, including the hosts of the TV show, "prove" that you can't.
Nonsense. One person can unquestionably live on that amount. [Aus dollar and US dollar are nearly equal, so no conversion needed.] I've been doing it for ten years. A family would have more trouble, but the whole fucking point of this reform is to make trouble.
When you have lots of folks living permanently on the dole, you can see that the gradient is slanted the wrong way. It's too easy to drop away from work and stay in the dole hole. You need to turn the gradient around, make work more comfortable than welfare. And the gradient needs to be especially steep at the start to break the static friction.
¶ 4:43 AM 
