Wednesday, October 07, 2009
The Conservative's Baby Bonus
Give the Tories credit. In marked contrast to the Liberal's early childhood education plan, the Tory baby bonus is truly universal, and did not take years to implement. Once upon a time the Liberals believed in universality. However, beyond half heartedly defending universal social programs they introduced in the 1960s, the Liberals idea of universality these days is pandering to all groups in equal measure. Ever since Martin and Chretein the Liberals have supported nothing but means tested social programs and an early childhood education plan that was so inadequately funded it hardly deserved to be called universal. The Liberals are kidding themselves if they think they can win elections by promising benefits to one group of people and having us all pay for that program. Given a choice between Tory tax cuts and paying for other people's social services, the portion of the populace that is not eligible --pretty much everybody --- will take the offer of a Tory tax cuts every time. Furthermore, it is also infinitely easier to explain a universal social program --- everybody gets X -- then it is explaining a means tested policy.
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3 comments:
I don't have to the Tories a darn thing and definitely zero credit in this area is what they get from me. Once again there is no one who is "not eligible" with the plans in my province (BC) for all day kindergarten (9-3 which is almost a full work day). It's free but you gotta be five though. The same will apply when the 4 years old are added, etc.
It certainly will cover a huge portion of the child care cost leaving parents to pay for maybe an hour or two now only if they are working a full day.
The Cons 60 bucks a month tax credit is great if your not working, and have a family rich enough to afford to have someone stay home. However it certainly provides jack s*** to parents who actually work and need child care which ranges between 600-800 bucks a month at a minimum... possibly more in big cities. Last time I checked over 70 percent of women with preschool age children have to return to work.
Again
I believe that child care is badly needed in Canada and nothing would please me more if the Liberals committed themselves to meeting the child care needs of all Canadians rather than just 10 to 15% they committed to before. If our health care system was only able to meet the needs of 15% of the population, I would have a hard time calling it universal. The same goes with childcare.
If fully funding universal daycare, means doing away with the baby bonus, then so be it.
All that said, my point was about the salability of means tested social policies and inadequately funded "universal" social programs. The Conservatives deserve credit for playing the political game better than the Liberals. Going into the 2005 2006election, I thought the Conservatives would not have an answer to the Liberals childcare plan. Their baby bonus proved me wrong. Of course, Conservative plan to increase daycare spaces by offering tax credits was utterly useless.
Leaving childcare aside for as second, the Liberals are kidding themselves if they think they can win elections by promising benefits to one group of people and having us all pay for that program. It should also be noted that the would benefiticaries of such policies are better served if that program was universal. It is next to impossible to roll back a universal social policy; it is infinitely easier to cut means tested policy.
How about inclooding respectful gratitood with yor gov't criticizm info' or beter yet, negate all negativ coments and make ownly pozitiv remarks, so that thu tone uv our sosietal conduct over-all, iz reckoned az comendable around thu globe, insted uv so constantly complaining.
In this instans, I've been on thu net for a half hour and hav yet to find the date uv thu first Baby Bonus Cheque pay-out, it's amount, and thu name uv the MP that introdoosed it and thu PM that permited its pasaje. Yes; it's nise to menshun Canada az having bin thu first to inisheate such program, but it WOULD be comendable to also inclood thu simple, breef spesifics so that browzerz are informativly reminded uv such pozitiv historical moments.
Now I'll continyoo looking, and I hope yoo're not wun uv thoze that negativly critisizez my prairie cultured Hairitaje Inglish speling; it's a direct spin-off frum transliteration, that which maintainz thu single standard uv consistently speling wordz az thay're pronounsed. This vairy much compensates for thu total absens uv fonics clasez in our CDN schoolz over thu past forty yearz, becuz prescriptiv English maintainz consistently inconsistent standardz that requir totaly diferent spelingz, az compaired to pronounsments, thu simple word "of" being a prominent example, in that it's speling duz not inclood iether uv its pronounsed symbolz , "uv", and thair are many uther such duble and triple standardz in prescriptiv English that Hairitaje Inglish totaly eliminates thu dificulteez uv. Aditionaly, Hairitaje Inglish vairy much asists thu more than half uv Canadianz that utherwize, are totaly iliterate, and less than 48% uv CDN's hav a reading and writing ability beyond thu primary school grade two level. Gus, MB, CANADA
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