CraigHSometimes we need incentives to follow our better nature
September 28th 2006 02:02
The failure of passive welfare to help those who receive it has been well documented by Theodore Dalrymple in the pages of The Spectator and City Journal . Noel Pearson of the Cape York Institute also knows this truism and has initiated an outstanding opt-in program linking welfare to certain benchmarks concerning illicit drug use and school attendance. Programs of this type are, to my mind, the only hope indigenous communities have of rasing standards of health, education and law and order. These programs, in which recipients receive their welfare payments only if they send their children to school and submit to drug tests to ensure they stay off illicit drugs are opt in programs. They are not imposed by a paternalistic government but indigenous familles see the benefit of them and choose to participate. It's a striking example of people recognising they need help to provide a better future for their children and voluntarily undertaking to link financial incentives to behaviour which they know will be good for themselves and their families. One can only marvel at the amount of work the CYI has put into convincing people to sign up and then helping them to stay with the program, but such voluntary self discipline is infinitely more worthwhile than passive welfare or punishment through the courts.
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