From: Martz (martz@martz.demon.co.uk)
Date: Tue Feb 25 1997 - 16:30:41 MST
On Tue, 25 Feb 1997, Erik Moeller <flagg@oberberg-online.de> wrote:
>Hello everyone,
>
>2 million British children suffer from the effects of malnutrition. A
>British study ("The Hunger within") shows that this is mainly a
>consequence of the cancellation of state subvention. This is another
>step to a more and more liberated economy (less state intervention) --
>and those children, yeah, at least now they can freely decide if they
>want to eat or not! The only thing that surprises me is that so many
>decide not to eat. Stupid children.
The problem here is that the state has spent so long nursing and
nannying people that they are unprepared for the responsibility of doing
it themselves. This is made worse by virtue of it being a withdrawal of
previously extant income. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most
species have mechanisms to adapt to lean times? If food is short,
reproduction decreases; smaller broods and less of them. It is
unfortunate that these people find themselves in a situation of sudden
deprivation, their reproductive decisions (conscious or not) were made
based on an energy supply of x. They now find themselves with x/2.
Result? A problem. Our particularly long nurturing period (inception to
the point where the offspring can sustain itself to a significant degree
- artificially inflated in todays western society) doesn't help. Most
species would suffer perhaps a year, perhaps less, of hungry offspring
and more mouths to feed than there was food to go around. We're not so
lucky, with perhaps 15 years to get through.
These families have my sympathy, and if people I knew (friends, family,
neighbours) found themselves in this situation I might be prepared to
help out financially if I could, but that is a decision only *I* can
make. I cannot make it for the guy down the road who's in gainful
employment paying taxes to support someone elses children when he has
trouble keep a roof over the heads of his own family. You may not be
aware of it but in the current welfare structure in Britain it can be
financially advantageous *not* to work (I expect to take a *lot* of
flack for that one 8).
So what do you propose? To perpetuate a problem? To treat the symptoms
instead of the disease? That's like using a sticking plaster to cover a
gaping wound. It's unsustainable and it's unfair and IMHO it should
never have happened. Unfortunately it did and there's nothing we can do
to change that. We *can* try to make things better for the future
though. I'm not saying that the welfare system is being dismantled in
the kindest manner possible, or even the most rational, but I back the
*principle* wholeheartedly.
Right. Time to don the Kevlar and await the inevitable.
-- Martz martz@martz.demon.co.uk For my public key, <mailto:m.traynor@ic.ac.uk> with 'Send public key' as subject an automated reply will follow. No more random quotes.
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