Thursday, September 06, 2007

Social Exclusion ? You Say That Like It's A Bad Thing

The Devil reports news of another family fallen victim to the cruelties of the 'dog eat dog' world of free for all capitalism. Clearly, they need their own team of social workers, a Sure Start centre in their back garden and special Super Self-Esteem Officer on call 24-7. Well, either that of a 24 000 volt reality check.

Whenever social conservatives criticise people like this, we're told we lack empathy and can't understand their situation. On the contrary, using our special Conservo-Ninja techniques - like listening to what they say - we manage to understand these people just fine: they'll keep wasting their lives sitting on the sofa just as long as those suckers with jobs will pay them to do it.

Doubtless, the economically-minded will be able to draw up all kinds of new systems to remove the incentives to worthlessness, but that's just avoiding the central point. Indeed, in so far as virtually all welfare reformers surrender the moral high ground to the left's victimhood hustlers, proposals for meaningful reform will always be DOA.

You can talk all you want about Citizens Basic Incomes and the like, but just as long as we implicitly accept the left's prohibition on judgementalism and pretend every lifestyle is as worthwhile as every other, these people will keep on having an easy ride.

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