“It’s not fair” just doesn’t cut it
Whilst I am enjoying the fact that the need for budget tightening is creating debate about the role of the state (as we have mentioned before on our blog) it is about time that the opponents of the government’s policies upped their game. It is getting a bit tedious to hear the cries of “it’s not fair” supported by the same level of intellectual debate I get from my 3 year old when she is told to turn off cbeebies (albeit without the foot stamping)!
Unfortunately, if you haven’t noticed we are in a bit of a financial mess and continuing to do things the way we always have done is not going to get us out of it.
My latest frustration came watching the news last night which had plenty of coverage about the cap on housing benefit. I have to say that I was horrified to hear that individual families are currently receiving such significant sums and, as a result, live in better accommodation/ locations than families paying rent from their own disposable incomes. Despite all the protestations and cries of “it’s not fair” I didn’t heard one justifiable reason for maintaining the current system.
Clearly, however, there are going to be some transitional issues that need addressing and this should be the focus of debate rather than whether it is fair or not. There are a whole host of consequences of implementing this policy which the free market will resolve in time (rents will re-balance; jobs will re-locate) but which will need government support to ensure the change process is handled effectively, to minimise the effect on the families impacted.
As with any decision, difficult consequences and change management issues should not prevent implementation particularly in a situation in which doing nothing is the worst possible decision for the long term prosperity of us all.