After the 2008 budget, the CPAG congratulated Labour and applauded the Greens for its home insulation progress in Budget08.
That’s the Child Poverty Action Group for those that don’t know.
Now I’ve blogged previously about the stupidity of talking about “Child Poverty”. But I thought I’d pick up another angle here.
When I read that statement, it occurred to me that home insulation isn’t going to make much difference to many children in poverty in this country. I know of one family who is stuck in poverty, and the house that they rent (I believe through housing NZ) is properly insulated.
How do I know this?
It has holes all through the walls.
Actually, it’s absolutely filthy. Last time I was there, the carpet was covered in a thick layer of grime, as were most of the walls. Drawers were missing their faces. The lock was missing of the front door. The feature that most drew my attention however the large number of flies buzzing around the floor.
But what really drew my gaze was a $2000 DVD recorder broken outside the door. I would charitably assume it was going out to the rubbish.
The children in this household do not live this way because of any lack of money. It doesn’t take money to not put a hole in the wall. It doesn’t take money to take your shoes off at the door (or whatever they did to make the carpet that dirty).
Yes, insulation is going to help some people. But others simply don’t care. Having insulation only helps if you close the door and put on the heater. Having a warm house isn’t going to do much for your health if every surface is covered in grime. Even then, children won’t succeed if they’re kept awake all night with wild parties and exposed daily to marijuana smoke. (Gee, doesn’t that remind you of another Green party policy?)
The reality is that these people don’t have a clue how to live their lives. Partly, that’s because of the benefit system that allows them to have someone else pick up their problems. That house will eventually be refitted thanks to joe taxpayer – I should note the local church offered to help them clean it up but was turned down. But this is partly a problem that has always existed, and we’ve been relying on big government programs to solve it for us. That’s never going to work.
What will work is if the government lets people fail, and makes it clear to the people that it’s their responsibility to look out for their neighbor, that it’s not something that can be waived away because “we all pay tax to fix it”.
I encourage readers to have a look at the CPAG website. Personally I don’t see that this group is going to do much about this situation – they seem more concerned about Christine Rankin’s appointment and Section 59 than doing anything that will remotely help the sort of situation above. I see complaints about the inability to afford good food, but nothing about creating gardens. I see demands for school education, but nothing about teaching the basics of life that the education system will never teach.
In short, they’re actually encouraging the attitudes that made this problem what it is today – part of the problem.
Written by scrubone
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