Quote of the day 2nd May 2015

A very prescient quote from Dr Adrian Rogers made back in 1931.
 
Britain absolutely does need a welfare system which provides a safety net for those who, for whatever reason, are temporarily or permanently unable to work or look after themselves. That is what the creators of the welfare state thought they were setting up.
 
What we  absolutely cannot afford is to extend that safety net until life on welfare becomes a lifestyle choice for those who could work or look after themselves.
 
The balance is a difficult one to strike and no government will ever get it completely right. But I think Doctor Rogers was right that if you go from helping those who cannot look after themselves, as any civilised country should do, to supporting those who could support themselves but don't want to, you will destroy your country.
 
 
 

Comments

Jim said…
A simple way of saying it is

"A government creates wealth, like a tick creates blood"
8:44 am
Jim said…
I really have problems understanding why the left have problems understanding it. If you tax the working people and give it to none working people, to a level where they are both as well off as each other, then the working people will stop working and become benefit receivers. But how do you pay the benefits when there are no workers left to tax?
11:09 am
Chris Whiteside said…
I also find it very frustrating that so many people have trouble understanding this.

But they do.

Otherwise Labour would either have more sensible policies or be on the 2% in the polls which they deserve rather than the 30-something percent which they are.
9:25 pm
Jim said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
8:49 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

Image
I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more