Thursday, 3 September 2009

Readers' letters of the day

Both from The Metro

So, the first child trust fund savers will soon receive £250 top-ups from the government (Metro, Tue

It has been suggested that these funds may be used to help pay for university education. Wouldn't it be simpler not to bother with them at all and [reduce] the amount students have to pay for university education? The many insane money-go-round schemes this government has come up with have resulted in a huge waste of money when you consider the army of administrators needed to look after them

Charles Tritton, London W4.


and:

I saw a sign in a bus station that said 'One bus takes 35 cars off the road'. Personally, I think it depends how aggressive the driver is.

Josh, West Yorkshire.

6 comments:

subrosa said...

Both sensible letters Mark. I wonder if the tories will do away with the excesses in the civil service who administer these benefits?

I'm not holding my breath.

AntiCitizenOne said...

> Wouldn't it be simpler not to bother with them at all and [reduce] the amount students have to pay for university education?

Not really, remember price is a signal. Hiding the proper cost of education won't be useful.

Mark Wadsworth said...

S, don't do that. You'll have suffocated long before they do anything sensible.

AC1, fair point. But it's surely better to increase Child Benefit by 25p a week or something than gimmicks like the Child Trust Fund.

AntiCitizenOne said...

I'm not sure raising child benefit is a good idea either!

Just simplification.
LVT to fund a CD.
Equal* CD to citizens.


*Can be varied to fund insurance needs.

Jonathan Miller said...

Is it not just throwing good money after bad?

Mark Wadsworth said...

JM, that is glorious, thanks!