As you see, even in New Zealand the welfare state is not really a welfare state at all, it has become a business - or more correctly a business within a business. For all government is a business - and usually a badly run one at that. The difference now is that instead of paying taxes to give ourselves some overall benefits - like health care, education and elderly care - we pay larger taxes, and on top of that we have to pay for whatever other services we use - payment a second time. Even state schools these days rely heavily on parents to supplement funding - one way or another. Welcome to the brave new world. Whoever dreamed up "user pays" in the 1970s? That was the beginning of the end, the blueprint for extortion.
From time to time I remind myself - all this nonsense is a byproduct of so-called civilization. In the real nitty-gritty world far removed from the welfare state, there is no home help, no respite care, no carer support - at least, none run by bureaucracy - no bureaucracy even! Look after your own as best you can, but at least you don't pay taxes (maybe), don't have Big Brother looking over your shoulder (maybe). No doubt there's a Big Brother of some sort lurking somewhere, with his hand held out. "Life was nasty, brutish and short". Maybe the "short" wasn't a bad thing.......... I am digressing.
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