join a campaign to protect CB - check out www.childbenefit.info

[MrMan]

A citizen of the state should be entitled to a vote, your freedom and equality under the law. State benefits are institutionalised charity given by your fellow citizens. Those who accept benefits are accepting charity from others; it is the ignorance of this fact that has lead to the culture of entitlement that pervades this country like a cancer.

I do not need CB, just like many others. I should not be “entitled” to it.

If people are contributing each and every week how can it be then declared charity? Your post does have a 'shame on you wretched people' vibe to it, but maybe I am just reading into the tone.

 

[orka]

The OP was selling 2 houses for 700k on another thread. Hardly dependant on child benefit..

Might not change the arguments but in fairness to the OP, it was one house at 700K which had been sale agreed twice...

 

[Purple]

If people are contributing each and every week how can it be then declared charity? Your post does have a 'shame on you wretched people' vibe to it, but maybe I am just reading into the tone.

I have no problem with society redistributing wealth to those who need it but cannot obtain it in a way that satisfies their basic but does not disincentives those from whom that wealth it taken from producing more wealth.
My problem is that few people seem to grasp the nature of the transaction. Basically the citizenry form a social contract to help each other if they are in need. This is no different to helping your neighbour if they fall on hard times (only the scale and mechanisms vary). The conduit through which we give that help to each other is our government but the government has no money, it simply distributes our money.
Once the above is recognised and all welfare payments are seen in the correct context it is clear that those who take welfare payments to which they are not entitled are stealing from their neighbour and those who take payments which they do not truly need are taking wealth from those who may be worse off than they are.

 

[demoivre]

Yes, but the point is that the better off parents don't 'need' the money.

And the people blowing it on cigarettes /alcohol do and are more justified in receiving it ?

 

[michaelm]

It is in the interest of the State and society to support children. Child Benefit is one such support. As it is a universal payment there is relatively little administrative overhead and it does not feed into the welfare traps which are a disincentive to work. I think that there are a lot of other areas which could be targeted before looking at the €5/day/child which the State currently provides.

 

[liaconn]

And the people blowing it on cigarettes /alcohol do and are more justified in receiving it ?

No, but two wrongs don't make a right. Saying well off people should get a state handout because less well off people spend their's on the wrong thing really doesn't make sense.

 

[BoscoTalking]

This was posted in a mums forum when they promoted this website in the last few days - can you imagine the reaction?.....

"We are very fortunate to be in high income bracket - I work 2.5 days a week in a well paid job and hubby full time in professional services. Its taken us a few years and lots of hard graft to get where we are - hubby in particular came from nothing and worked his ass off to get where he is.
I suppose what bugs me, and I'm sure people will have their own view on this, is people's assumption that because we are both in well paid jobs we have money to burn and we do not deserve money from the State.
Firstly, with new tax levies etc, we are giving 55% iof our earnings to the State - more than we get for ourselves. We have both been working since we were 18 so have been funding the State for 20 years.
We have a huge mortgage, we bought in peak times, and a small house - our 4 children share 1 room. We pay €400 per month for DS2's montessori and we pay an aupair €600 a month to mind our smallest 2 while we work. We are also supporting DH's nephew through college. When we were left a small inheritance 5 years ago, we used it to put down a deposit on an investment property and have a second mortgage on that. The rent we get on the house is €350 less than the mortgage so we are funding that as well. At the end of the month we have c. €750 to pay for gas, electricity, food, clothes, kids activities (presents for birthday parties etc, school stuff), petrol & car running costs, GP visits, health insurance, house insurance, refuse collection etc etc. If Boolaru can show me where I can get a Prada handbag for a couple of cent I'd be really delighted"

it was followed by: "Re the comment on us using our inheritance to buy an investment property when we should have used it to pay off our mortgage, foresight is a wonderful thing and if we knew 5 years ago that we would be targeted by the current government just because we work hard to provide a future for our kids we would have done. By the way, we are participating in the Cork city rental accommodation scheme to provide housing to those in need - in other words we are helping those who not only cannot afford to buy but are having their acccommodation paid for by the State while we struggle to pay the mortgage!!!! We bought the house as an investment for our children as we want them to benefit from the hard slog we have put in over the last 20 years - needed more than ever if our CB is taken from us"

I wonder is the OP on this thread the same as the one here? both have 4 children....

 

[Purple]

How the hell is she paying 55% of her total income in tax? If it was her marginal rate that would be one thing but she said it was 55% of income. In order to do that they must have a household income of over €500’000 a year. If that is the case and they have one very small house the mortgage on which is taking up nearly all of their income then it must be some house... perhaps it’s a solid gold house?... or maybe, just maybe, she’s posting a load of emotional nonsense.

 

[Howitzer]

A quick whois on the url gives the OP, an Offaly woman working in the Tipperay Institute (Programme Specialist?). The information is available for anybody to see so I'm not giving out any more than the OP has done herself.

I suppose if you're going to post on multiple forums in order to gain publicity for a web site you have to be prepared to stand over that and not expect anonymity (for example Brendan Burgess owns the AAM domain, well known information and no secret).

 

[BoscoTalking]

she’s posting a load of emotional nonsense.

she got short shrift i can tell you from many - it just sounded similar.

But there were some who approved of her argument.