Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

It would have taken $12.6 billion to give the 3.5 million Canadians living in poverty enough income to live above the poverty line in 2007.

And yet Canadians spent at least double that amount treating the consequences of poverty that year, says the National Council of Welfare.

[...]

Provincially, Quebec's universal $7-a-day child-care program is credited for cutting the poverty rate of single-parent families by 15 percentage points between 1997 and 2007.

— "Canada urged to spend smarter to cut poverty", Toronto Star

The National Council of Welfare is a government agency reporting to the Minister of National Health and Welfare.

Comments

[the_siobhan]

But it's far more important that we send a clear message that it's not morally acceptable to be poor.

[bcholmes]

There should be compromise. We can give poor people money to raise them above the poverty level, but we should randomly pick, say, 1% of those people and throw them off a cliff. Sends a clear message, but is more cost-effective.

[wild_irises]

Yes. And also that we under no circumstances actually give money to the poor. We have to give money to people who aren't poor but can help the poor. And that's more expensive.