Boston on the button

Jonathan Boston’s ‘‘welfare needs a rethink’’ (Dec 12) is on the button when he says ‘‘to better protect the vulnerable, we need more buy-in from the rest of us’’. Since the introduction of neo-liberal economics in the mid-eighties we have moved from being a ‘community’ caring society to one of ‘me, me, me’.

This means we want anyone convicted of a crime ‘‘locked up and the key thrown away’’, while many think those on benefits are dope-smoking, booze-swilling, lazy people who can’t be bothered working; that the parents or those who don’t have good food and shelter are totally to blame. Apparently the ‘me’ lot know exactly how these people should live, where the jobs are and how to take care of the children.

In the Welfare Experts advisory group’s report into poverty the number one recommendation, which would move thousands of people out of poverty, was to increase benefits.

Of course all governments and opposition parties have their eyes on the next election, and increasing benefits for ‘lazy’ people does not garner votes. This has nothing to do whether as a country we can afford it or not. The cost further down the line will be much greater, but it has to do with the popularity stakes.

Come on Kiwis, stop being punitive, put yourself in their shoes, stop condemning and start supporting and get back to being the first country in the world that introduced a welfare state in the 1930s that showed we cared about those less fortunate than ourselves. Bronwen Summers, Waltham