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Labour's children; how welfare dependency caused the riots

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Post  EarthsAngel Sun Aug 14, 2011 4:26 am

"With the country approaching socio-economic heart failure, this article offers a hitherto unexplored comparison between the international aid given to states and that of domestic welfare provided to families"


The turbulent events of recent weeks have brought into sharp focus the issue of the client state and in particular, the actions of a generation of largely welfare dependent young Britons. Despite spending tens of billions of pounds more each year in benefits payments than were collected in taxation revenues over the last 15 years, the UK government has thus far failed to stem the flow of disillusionment and disaffection bleeding from the once beating heart of the working class. Further, as Professor Frank Furedi of the University of Kent said this week ‘none of the conventional sociological explanations—from the Left or the Right—can satisfactorily account for the present riots in England’. With the country approaching socio-economic heart failure, this article offers a hitherto unexplored comparison between the international aid given to states and that of domestic welfare provided to families in order to explain why benefit dependency is to blame for the August lootings of 2011.


“…a ‘parallel services’ scenario has created a system of state substitution or ‘state surrogacy’ which has left domestic governments side-lined and ineffectual”


If we up-scale the benefit system to the international level then the direct equivalent is international aid. Surprisingly, the largest provider of such aid, UNHCR, is concerned that it has created aid dependent cultures which, while feeding the masses, actually undermine governments of States. Consequently, the organisation is currently undergoing a complete strategic rethink with the aim of drastically reducing the amount of food it distributes. The rationale is that the governments of countries which are major recipients of aid (e.g. Haiti or Somalia) have become so used to receiving aid that they have almost completely ceased to engage in any wealth generation or indeed self-preservation activities on behalf of the citizenry. The direct result of which, in regards to the provision of food and public health services, is that the state itself has become largely irrelevant and family units now look to international organisations like UNHCR to fulfil these requirements, rather than their own domestic government. What UNHCR refers to as a ‘parallel services’ scenario has created a system of state substitution or ‘state surrogacy’ which has left domestic governments side-lined and ineffectual. The resultant governmental absenteeism and the abandonment of the citizenry usually leads to further corruption, violence and war. This is a cycle which UNHCR feels can only be broken by carefully weaning such states off aid and onto self-sustainability. In short, that long-term aid programmes are the very reason why the requirement for aid becomes permanent.


“A system of ‘domestic surrogacy’ is born, under which the family unit is undermined, side-lined and increasingly irrelevant”


If we now down-scale the international community/domestic state model to become that of the domestic government/family model, then it becomes possible to draw some obvious parallels. At this level, the aid provider is the domestic government’s welfare programmes, i.e. UNHCR is substituted for the DWP, and the aid recipient thus becomes the family unit. Just as in the international scenario, there is a period of ‘parallel services’ where the traditional family unit and the welfare state run side-by-side. In this case, just as in the international model, the external aid provider has access to comparatively endless resources and expertise. Inevitably, these soon out-strip the abilities of the family to provide for those in its care. A system of ‘domestic surrogacy’ is born, under which the family unit is undermined, side-lined and increasingly irrelevant by the state which provides the home, the money and thus the food on the table. The addition of ‘community outreach workers’ and other morally and ethically targeted public sector jobs which focus family values means that all of the significant roles of the traditional family have rivals or authority challengers employed by the ‘parallel services’ provider.


“the psychology of benefit expectancy becomes hardwired very quickly and is fatally corrosive to families, communities and society”


At the international level, the aid dependency paradigm leads to violence and disorder born of justified feelings of impotence and irrelevance caused, ironically, directly by the aid giver. At the domestic level, it is welfare dependency which has led to violence and disorder created by the genuine feelings of a lack of self-respect and self-worth caused, ironically enough, by welfare state. Drawing lessons from UNHCR’s emerging global strategy, we must realise that at the family-level, the psychology of benefit expectancy becomes hardwired very quickly and is fatally corrosive to families, communities and society in general. This is a cycle which can only be broken by carefully weaning families off the welfare state and onto self-sustainability. Essentially, that short-term benefits cannot be allowed to become long-term welfare; eventually this is an aid requirement which becomes permanent and carries with it a genuine and serious risk of frustration and violence.


Rather than help the poor, generous benefits undermine the individual, the family and as we have seen this week, the whole of society. The challenge for David Cameron and Ian Duncan Smith is to salami slice benefits so that only the bare minimum remains, without inflaming further disorder.


As an old Oxfam advertisement used to say: “Give a man a fish and he can feed himself for a day, teach him how to fish and he can feed his family forever”.

I think this mind-set of entitlement has to stop!!!
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Post  EarthsAngel Sun Aug 14, 2011 8:36 am

I don't think benefits should become a lifestyle choice, they should be short term for those who desperately need it. The problem seems to be the lack of jobs available. Maybe they should start apprentice courses and teach the jobless a trade. Make sure they are at least able to read and write, preferably, speak in a language most English speakers can understand. After watching the riots last week, it has become patently obvious that drastic changes need to be made. Discipline in schools should be the first step. Parents who don't look after their kids should be penalized, maybe forced into good parenting classes?

[color=red][What do you think should be done? What would be your priority? What would you do with the rioters?/color]
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Post  EarthsAngel Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:34 am

Found this on twitter:

Wisdom from part time rioter Chelsea Ives: "yh galz r goin to steal weavee. Bt is it stealin doeee. Cozzz da shop keeper aint fukin derr. mugs"

Can anyone translate for me? I can only make out a few words of English.

I understand: - goin to steal - shopkeeper - fukin mugs, they rest is gobbledegook
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