"The complexity inherent in the multiple measures of child poverty does nothing to instil confidence in their veracity. What the complexity does do is create a bias towards overstating poverty – a useful tool for proponents of greater wealth redistribution.
"I tend towards a simple view. One which rarely rates a mention. The strongest correlate for child poverty is the rate of single parenthood. In New Zealand it is high. Among Māori it is very high.
"Fixing that – an outcome largely in the hands of individuals – will go a long way towards reducing childhood hardship and deprivation."~ Lindsay Mitchell, from her post 'Child poverty - complex or simple?' [hat tip Homepaddock]
Monday, 4 March 2024
"The strongest correlate for child poverty is the rate of single parenthood. Fix that."
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Lindsay makes some very good points in this space. But I'm also skeptical we have a serious poverty problem that needs fixing in the first place. Relative to most of human history there is no real poverty in NZ in the current era, in that nobody is literally starving because they can't find enough food. So long as we have a welfare state there will be those who take advantage of it, and the greater will be the tendency to have children outside of a committed relationship. In fact it's precisely because they can get by in such situations without dying that we have a high rate of single parenthood. I can't see how we can 'fix' that. It's the result of the fact we have largely fixed poverty.
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