With the murder of young JJ Lawrence in the news, I’ve been hearing it from talkback and around the traps all week. I’ve been hearing that “we” have a problem with family violence; that “we” are killing our kids; that “we,” you and I, are to blame.
Bullshit.
Let me tell you something: We—you and I—are not to blame. I didn’t kill those kids. You didn’t. The only thing “we” have done is pay children to have children they don’t want, then read too late about what those parent-children have done to them.
Because if there’s one common factor in all these murders, it’s the existence of a regular welfare cheque in these households of horror that appear in the headlines with frightening regularity. These scum were paid to breed, and JJ Lawrence, Cezar Taylor, Coral-Ellen Burrows, Lillybing Karaitiana-Matiaha, Delcelia Witika, James Whakaruru, Craig Manukau, Nia Glassie, Saliel Aplin, Olympia Jetson, Chris and Cru Kahui died of it.
These are little people who will never grow old because their parents, or those who called themselves parents, snuffed out their lives before they had barely begun.
You might call it homicide by welfare. We pay no-hopers to breed, and then we wonder why their progeny have no hope.
Sure, not everybody paid to breed kills their children. Despite the incentives, most taking a welfare cheque do love and care for their kids--and thank goodness for that. But we all react to incentives, and the incentives set up by being paid to breed—which is what the DPB system promotes—are not good ones.
We pay children to have children. We offer money to no-hopers to have children they don’t want.
Why should we be surprised when so many of their unwanted children don’t survive?
We've been following this hopeless pattern now for more than three generations, and we’ve produced at least three generations of losers. The system has produced three generations of losers.
Who's really to blame here for the hopelessness of it all? Answer: those who put the system in place, and those who feed it and maintain it and argue for its continuing existence.
We don't need inquiries or more hand-wringing; the answer is much simpler than that: It's time to stop paying no-hopers to breed. Here's how to do it.
In the meantime, let’s stop taking the blame for these murders. We didn't kill these children, either by commission or omission. It wasn't us: it was the incentives offered by a welfare cheque and whole sorry whanau round each of them. Babies who were paid paid by the system to have babies.
Think about that when the busybodies are blaming us.
4 comments:
So right.
Sandrine
Nice post Peter. Libertarians have to get it out there that the society based on self reliance and self responsibility is the 'decent' society. Children born through natural love and affection, and thinking about financial ability to raise a child before conception, not after the event.
There's a great link from Cafe Hayek this morning to Von Mises wisdom on methodological individualism - which put's paid to the 'we' nonsense, as you rightly point out. Link here (no time to create clicky):
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/methodological-individualism/
(Also, your link to 'here's how to do it' is broken.)
I concur, have been saying the same thing for years. Welfare creates more of the problems it was intended to solve.
JeffW
The perpetual use of "we" should be attacked at all points.
Meanwhile, this will be used to justify a quasi-authoritarian approach to anyone other than parents, interacting with children. In the UK we had authors reading books at libraries to children needing Criminal Records Bureau checks - these checks don't just cover convictions, but any arrests and any other matters the Police believe relevant to note - so if annoyed divorcee complained to the Police that you were once seen having a shower while your daughter happened to talk to you in the bathroom- it's on file.
A combination of the parasitical welfare state and the feminist/authoritarian fear ridden policing of childrens' safety - but don't dare tell 16 year old girls they shouldn't be parents, it's their right!
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