Changes in legislation on welfare are a stark
reality check.
The exponential growth of our lax benefits
provision has far
outstripped our ability to pay for an abused system
that is far
removed from the
Christian intent that influenced Beveridge's
thinking when in
1942 he wrote his blueprint for the welfare
State.
He considered that state benefits should be based
on
contribution, a
safety net in times of need. They were
never
meant to be a lifestyle choice, promoting large
families living
in overcrowded urban connurbations, where no-one
works, with
each succeeding generation inheriting the
dependency culture
from the preceding one.
It is a depressing picture in which in many cases the Victorian
work ethic that our forebears successfully exported to those
with whom we
fiercely compete in world markets, has all but
disappeared. It is
one in which many of the million or so of
our young people are
demotivated by a mindset of entitlement,
devoid of the desire to work, and failed by an education
system that is unfit
for purpose.
The clergy's hostility to such reforms should perhaps be
tempered by the biblical axiom: As you sow, so shall you
reap.
What Beveridge sowed seventy years ago was the
spirit of altruism. What we continue to reap is that which
can no longer be afforded when the economy is flatlining
and the crippling burden of debt grows by the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment