Should poor people really have children?

[tinfoilhat]

There's no need to get rattled. The tone of your response is a touch off, and a bit personal. But anyway, all you've done really is provide some anecdotal evidence. I'm not disagreeing that this could be happening. I would just rather see better evidence than sensationalist articles in magazines and the right wing press.

 

What I'm asking for really is evidence of the scale of it. I'm minded to believe that in terms of overall welfare spend it will be very minimal, perhaps a small fraction of 1%. And if I'm right I'd suggest that ideally we focus on other much bigger welfare issues like pensions costs and housing benefits costs.

 

But if I was to put forward ideas for sorting this out then the first step would have to be educating people about their choices in life, maybe improved services around contraception and that kind of thing, and of course looking at how to provide suitable employment opportunities. What would you do?

 

---------- Post added 03-03-2013 at 19:25 ----------

 

 

Not at all. If you read my posts above I very clearly state it could happen.

 

What I'm doing is questioning the extent of it, and the costs in terms of welfare. My belief is that the costs will be minimal compared to other sreas of welfare spending.

 

I'm basically trying to get the evidence to see if I should get worked up by it. As it is there is no evidence provided on this thread that indicates the scale of the problem, so IMO no point in getting too excited.

 

I don't know how you'd get it. I'm quite sure it won't be on any questionnaire with regards to benefits. It's perfectly legal so it's not going to show up on crime stats. I found a stat showing how many households that are full of people who have never worked, but I think you'll struggle to find anything one way or another.

 

I don't think it's a massively high figure or the government(s) would have shown the figure to placate the daily mail.

[I1L2T3]

You do understand that people having lots of kids they can't afford also increases housing costs and pension costs?

 

Again it depends on the extent of the issue as to whether it should be a priority issue. My feeling is that in terms of percentage of welfare spend it is not a priority issue.

 

---------- Post added 03-03-2013 at 20:03 ----------

 

I don't know how you'd get it. I'm quite sure it won't be on any questionnaire with regards to benefits. It's perfectly legal so it's not going to show up on crime stats. I found a stat showing how many households that are full of people who have never worked, but I think you'll struggle to find anything one way or another.

 

I don't think it's a massively high figure or the government(s) would have shown the figure to placate the daily mail.

 

Bit in bold - I think this is true.

 

If there was a real problem the figures would be all over the press.

[MrSmith]

Again it depends on the extent of the issue as to whether it should be a priority issue. My feeling is that in terms of percentage of welfare spend it is not a priority issue.

 

Government doesn't have to do one thing at a time; it’s possible if they had the will to do this and many other things at the same time.

[I1L2T3]

Government doesn't have to do one thing at a time; it’s possible if they had the will to do this and many other things at the same time.

 

Of course. But they have to prioritise.

 

The only government action right now seems to be briefing the press. If it's a huge problem that's not right is it?

[aliceBB]

You do realise this was written as a satire, don't you?

 

Er, yes, funnily enough, I do. I have a degree in English Lit and I'm quite good on irony.

 

Plus, if you think about it a bit harder than you obviously have, it is highly unlikely that anyone would cite Swift's A Modest Proposal these days without knowing something about its context (and thus understanding its tone).

[woodmally]

I wonder how many post against 'the poor' are coming from working people who have no benefit, have thoughtfully had children they can afford and are struggling to make ends meet....

 

And how many are coming from people that begrudge anyone receiving money they don't get themselves.

 

Why don't we go the whole hog and make everyone infertile.

We could buy kids at Tesco, make the price high so the poor can't have em.

 

Or we could focus more on the importance of family and guidance instead of how many xboxs and tv's you can buy to keep the little tykes busy.

 

My family were poor. Working but poor.

I didn't get swimming lessons we used to swim in the canal (not recommended or useful as it turns out I still can't swim but I can walk across the bottom really fast) we had holidays on my Aunts farm. Working holidays!

It didn't make us into rogues or vandals it made us grateful and appreciative of the simple things.

 

Firstly I work not on benefit and we have decided we cannot afford to have children. Now the population isnt going to disapper tomorrow. As for attacking the poor. Its not the poor I'm attacking its the chavs on the end of the street that hang around harassing people. Its the people on benefits who cannot aford to sustain themselves so what do they do. Have more kids. Its those that cannot be bothered to get a job. Its these groups I take issue with.