Mr Cameron said the existing benefits system was “sending out strange signals on working, housing and families”.
He went on: “A couple will say, ‘We are engaged, we are both living with our parents, we are trying to save before we get married and have children and be good parents.
“‘But how does it make us feel, Mr Cameron, when we see someone who goes ahead, has the child, gets the council home, gets the help that isn’t available to us?’
“One is trapped in a welfare system that discourages them from working, the other is doing the right thing and getting no help.”
But your fictional couple is getting help. They’re getting help from their parents, which makes them lazy and entitled, last I checked in with the world’s foremost authorities on self-determination, right-wing politicians of the world. “My dad could afford to give me a start in life, therefore I am completely independent and deserve sole credit for all of my achievements” is a construction I will never understand.
Then again I suppose we should all have the grace to be born white in a Western country, because I totally remember that choice in the womb and boy am I awesome for having made it.
A.
ps. I’m just about done with the state telling people how many children they can have. Either put birth control in the water supply and make people have to apply for a breeding license, or shut the fuck up, because shaming people for having children is like the least effective way to do this.
This whole point would be moot if most people had a chance at a living wage.
Sure, there will be a few grifters who try to game the system. But I have less concern with poor people doing it than I have with wealthy people doing it.