2009 September | rob-thompson.com

Archive for September, 2009

Sep200930

Why give rich people benefits?

You probably don’t see yourself as a someone who depends on the welfare state, but I bet you’re wrong.

Rich or poor, it’s hard to avoid state handouts these days. Even retired billionaires are entitled to winter-fuel payments of £250 to heat their mansions, while dukes get child benefit of £20 a week for their heirs (along with £250 for the child’s trust fund). The different types of benefits have increased from just seven between 1948 and 1969 to well over 50 now – and the Government runs “costly campaigns” to tell the public about them.

No wonder the country’s in debt.

Instead of urging people to take up benefits, we should be promoting self-sufficiency. We’ll never reduce welfare dependency until we tackle the passive mind-set behind it.

Let’s begin by stopping all benefits for high-rate taxpayers, and encouraging others to forego them. One idea could be to give taxpayers a small discount on their basic rate of tax if they took no benefits the previous year – the welfare equivalent of a no-claims bonus.

Welfare should be a safety net, not a mainstream way of life.

Economics and Investing: (survivalblog.com)
Inequality and consistency (marginalrevolution.com)

Sep200919

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Brown forgets about the dying prisoners

: Image via Wikipedia

Therelease of the Lockerbie bomber must have raised the hopes of the many non-celebrity ill and infirm prisoners in English jails.

Since Gordon Brown was so reluctant for a mass-murderer to die in prison, surely he would wish to extend the same sympathy to the large number of frail or dying prisoners currently advancing towards a state of harmlessness behind bars? Or does Brown’s humanitarianism only surface when he’s sucking up to a dictator?

According to the Howard League for Penal Reform, there are already 2,265 prisoners aged over 60 in England, of whom 129 are over 76. Some 94 died of natural causes in our prisons last year.

And thanks to a combination of longevity, longer sentences and Labour’s love of prision, the over-60s are the fastest-growing group in English jails. Yet there is no coherent strategy for the care of older prisoners, and the terminally-ill may only apply for compassionate release three months before their predicted death, meaning many die in custody. Even without the high-profile Megrahi case, the need for reform is clear.