A General Principle?
This is an idea that has been bubbling away beneath
the calm surface presented in my normal demeanour. It relates primarily to the
question of behaviour and the preference to address the underlying cause rather
than the expressed ‘crime’. The central premise is that there is no reason to
believe that basic human behaviour patterns are any different between the very
rich and the very poor. I appreciate that this flies somewhat in the face of
conventional ‘Conservative’ theories (which is perhaps why I am developing
these lines of thought) which appear to presume all rich people are ‘good’ and
should be allowed to do what they want and that all poor people are ‘bad’ and
must be forced to bend to the will of the rich.
In contrast, I contend that the behaviour patterns and
personality traits that are so highly prized in the rich can also be seen in
those closer to the bottom of the heap. That is, those who so successfully get
under the skin of the Conservative governments – the ‘skivers’, the feckless
scroungers on the welfare state are displaying otherwise positively viewed
behaviour. They are, in effect, self-employed entrepreneurs striving to extract
as much as possible from the benefits programmes. That is their full-time job.
What does this mean, I hear you ask? In my world view,
it means that modification of the benefits system will never hit those that it
is intended to punish. Those professional benefit claimants will use their
inherent (and I use that word advisedly, after all, I know what is meant by it)
nature to maximise their income. Those who simply find themselves in the need
of benefit will instead suffer the punishments because they are not so
well-equipped to plunder the system. In the end, the welfare bill will be reduced,
there will be genuine and tragic suffering inflicted, and the real targets will
survive quite happily doing what they do best. The politicians will be happy
and the public duped, again.
In summary? Look at the behaviour patterns; learn how
to make it easy to claim reasonable benefit – reduce the competitive advantage
of the professional claimant. Don’t simply fall into the thought process that
paints all people with the same brush. In the same way that some people work
very hard to find tax loopholes others will work very hard to find benefit
claim advantage. If the government took the same approach to tax avoidance as
they should take to benefit claims, then we would live in a far fairer and more
efficient world. But, don’t hold your breath, so long as politicians see tax
avoidance as a positive behaviour pattern and claiming welfare as a negative
(but are, in fact, the two faces of the same coin), then nothing will change.
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