Policy has failed
Posted by Nicholas Gruen on Sunday, December 25, 2005
This is a quote from a sympathetic review of a book I am reading called “Children of the Lucky Country”. I hope to write more on it soon.
Paul Kelly – (not the journalist but the board member of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth) writes this:
Australian policy has failed. Obesity and diabetes are on the rise. Asthma rates have lifted from 10 per cent to 30 per cent over three decades.
Reporting on the increase in asthma, the book says (on page 53) “Why this has occured is not yet known”.
A bit tough to blame policy for it then it seems to me.
This entry was posted on Sunday, December 25th, 2005 at 4:54 PM and filed under Uncategorized.
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It sounds pretty ordinary to me, all this stuff about crises to beat us up into a frenzy for more social activism. On the topic of the cost of parenthood, what if people take this into account and plan for it instead of living to the limit and then expecting the state to put their hands into other people’s pockets to help. Bah humbug!!
Posted on 26-Dec-05 at 10:18 am | PermalinkIf couples really understood the financial and emotional cost of children, I doubt whether anyone would become a parent.
Raising children is the ultimate in private cost and public benefit. The better parent one is, the less one will get from the public purse, the fewer costs one will impose on society, and the greater value one’s offspring will be to society.
Once upon a time having children was economically advantageous to their parents. They were not merely extra mouths to feed, but extra hands on the farm or in the business. Then when the parents were no longer able to look after themselves, the children provided the pension plan.
From an economic point of view, as things stand to-day, children are nothing but a burden on their parents. It’s really personal financial lunacy to have children.
Of course, someone else must continue to have children, otherwise there will be no economy.
Posted on 28-Dec-05 at 11:17 am | Permalink[...] I mentioned a book I’ve read – “Children of the Lucky Country”
Posted on 01-Jan-06 at 5:16 pm | Permalink