Tuesday 30 March 2010

Reader's Letter Of The Day

From The Metro:

The Harris poll that suggests that women are putting of having children because it may harm their job prospects misses on rather more obvious reason (Metro, Mon).

Rocketing house prices over the past 30 years mean that mothers working is no longer a choice but a necessity for many. Successive governments have failed to deal with rampant house price increases and the effects will be felt by British society and the economy for decades to come.

NJ, Kent.

9 comments:

Nick39 said...

It's cultural suicide to make having children while young too expensive for those who work, and free for those who don't.

England will not be defeated on a battlefield, but through the corrosive influence of socialists and feminists.

Mark Wadsworth said...

K, if you're referring to the welfare system, here's UKIP's proposal: "Merge Child Benefit, the Child Trust Fund, Child Tax Credits and the Education Maintenance Allowance into an enhanced Child Benefit, payable
for each of the first three children in a family"


But that doesn't address artificially high house prices (where again, those at the bottom get housing for free, those further up the scale have to pay through the nose).

Anonymous said...

Pretty much sums up my current situation, both me and my partner MUST work to pay the bills.

Though i would argue it's a combination of high taxes as well as housing costs that leave us with little for ourselves.

A friend of mine though is a little more organised. She just pop'd out a baby with no job, she's currently being offered a nicer flat than ours for nothing.

Lola said...

I have four daughters all of child bearing age. Two have acceptable boyfriends (they each can mend a bicycle) and two do not. The two with men are not yet interested in families, they have Things to Do.

The two without boyfriends would both like to have an acceptable man about the place, but neither can find one. The consensus opinion is that 'there are very few actual blokes about'. Most men that do appear are either total woosses or otherwise useless or are completely feckless.

So, I don't just think it is the housing issue. It's also a chronic shortage of 'blokes' issue. Today's 'man' not generally being one.

bayard said...

Lola, it's all these non-jobs that are now around, they need non-men to do them!

Mark Wadsworth said...

Anon, indeed, and I am simultaneously fighting on all these fronts. None of this 'just happens', there's always a rent-seeker behind it somewhere.

L, faced with Anon's situation, which I am sure is typical for most, is it any wonder?

B, men do the well-paid non-jobs but the bulk of non-jobs are in fact done by women, 70% of taxpayer funded jobs are done by women. I'm not sure if that advances the discussion, but I thought I'd throw it in.

Lola said...

MW and anon just to inform you a little more. A young lady acquaintance of Daughter No 3 has deliberately set about having 2 children and not getting married to the father or living with same. Result! As in the result is a free flat, 100% council tax benefit and lots of other benefits such that she now has MORE disposable income than working daughter No. 3. Plus of course the father gives her cash subs.

The world has gone mad. But a rational decision by the young lady.

PS. This woman highly pisses off all my daughters.

bayard said...

Mark, women are non-men: I rest my case.

Lola: Well you could say that the young woman has landed a well paid public sector job with a tied house as a full-time mother. It's a more useful career than most publically funded jobs.

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, I often rail against 'the couple penalty' in principle, but what's really depressing is when you meet people who actually do it. But can you blame them for making a rational economic decision? They don't make the rules, they just abuse them.

B, touche.