Summarised by Centrist
Historian Michael Bassett argues that modern poverty in New Zealand is an entrenched, man-made industry.
Aiming at social workers, charities, and “aspiring left-wing journalists” who benefit from what he calls “social mayhem,” he writes:
“Many of the complainants… simply farm the poor and rely on their continued existence for their own personal incomes,” he writes,
Bassett contends that instead of holding parents accountable for outcomes, the state has backed away, and a sprawling “poverty industry” has taken root in its place. “Large numbers of jobs depend on social mayhem,” he says. “This industry prevents politicians… from coming to grips with the real causes.”
He argues that successive governments have failed to confront the unintended consequences of welfare expansion and the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) introduced in 1974.
Noting that numbers have “exploded from 6,000 to over 100,000 in two decades,” he writes, “Paying able-bodied people to stay at home and not earn their living is probably the biggest social miscalculation of the last sixty years.”
Three generations of children, he argues, have now grown up in households with no working adults, no consistent parenting, and little expectation of school attendance or self-sufficiency.
“The worst of all,” he adds, “is the mounting evidence that far from reducing poverty, [the experts’] solutions… are sure-fire guarantees that the number of beneficiaries will grow, and poverty along with them.”
