Youth should work, not collect welfare
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Youth should work, not collect welfare
by growler Fri Oct 11, 2013 2:53 pm
British Prime Minister David Cameron recently said that able-bodied youth under age 25 should no longer be allowed to collect unemployment or welfare benefits, arguing that it is too easy to become indolent right after high school.
“Today it is still possible to leave school, sign on (to a state welfare benefit), find a flat, start claiming housing benefits and opt for a life on benefits,” said the British leader in a recent speech to Conservative party faithful in Manchester.
Cameron is on to something — it is a bad idea for the young to get hooked on a life of dependency and sloth, and we wish mainstream politicians on our side of the Atlantic would be similarly brave. Ironically, for all the bad press some aboriginal leaders in Canada receive on occasion, at least one has blazed the trail for others in the same way that Cameron has in Great Britain.
The Osoyoos First Nation long ago recognized welfare dependency as a trap for everyone, but especially the young. The Centre for First Nations Governance notes how the Osoyoos First Nations government identified the cycle of welfare as a problem the band wanted to break and it has made every effort to do so over the years.
That might explain why the band’s longtime chief, Clarence Louie, has been blunt over the years. Comments from Louie include advice to young aboriginals to “get off of welfare” and “get off your butt.” He has also remarked that “real warriors hold jobs.”
In 2010, Louie told a Toronto newspaper that there have been significant problems with the young, where some youths from his reserve “went off to college and they failed every course.” Louie remarked how he had the same experience. However, rather than succumbing to the welfare trap, he pointed out he was “always a hard worker” and his goal has always been to work and to succeed.
He told the interviewer that such an ethic was regrettably too rare among a lot of aboriginal youth, but that a strong work ethic is what he and his colleagues “want to see developed in our people, (because) as long as you have a work ethic, you’ll always have a productive life and you’ll always have a chance to bounce back.”
In earlier decades, the British were known for their “stiff upper lip” — the notion that hardy citizens could endure everything and anything without complaint. It appears Cameron would like to return his fellow citizens to that robust sense of self-worth.
It is a perfectly sensible idea, and one that has resonance on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Not only will it help society on the whole, but it will improve the lives of individuals, giving them a sense of purpose and pride. But in Canada, the only politician who has been so blunt has been a First Nations leader from southern British Columbia. More politicians should imitate Louie and Cameron.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
“Today it is still possible to leave school, sign on (to a state welfare benefit), find a flat, start claiming housing benefits and opt for a life on benefits,” said the British leader in a recent speech to Conservative party faithful in Manchester.
Cameron is on to something — it is a bad idea for the young to get hooked on a life of dependency and sloth, and we wish mainstream politicians on our side of the Atlantic would be similarly brave. Ironically, for all the bad press some aboriginal leaders in Canada receive on occasion, at least one has blazed the trail for others in the same way that Cameron has in Great Britain.
The Osoyoos First Nation long ago recognized welfare dependency as a trap for everyone, but especially the young. The Centre for First Nations Governance notes how the Osoyoos First Nations government identified the cycle of welfare as a problem the band wanted to break and it has made every effort to do so over the years.
That might explain why the band’s longtime chief, Clarence Louie, has been blunt over the years. Comments from Louie include advice to young aboriginals to “get off of welfare” and “get off your butt.” He has also remarked that “real warriors hold jobs.”
In 2010, Louie told a Toronto newspaper that there have been significant problems with the young, where some youths from his reserve “went off to college and they failed every course.” Louie remarked how he had the same experience. However, rather than succumbing to the welfare trap, he pointed out he was “always a hard worker” and his goal has always been to work and to succeed.
He told the interviewer that such an ethic was regrettably too rare among a lot of aboriginal youth, but that a strong work ethic is what he and his colleagues “want to see developed in our people, (because) as long as you have a work ethic, you’ll always have a productive life and you’ll always have a chance to bounce back.”
In earlier decades, the British were known for their “stiff upper lip” — the notion that hardy citizens could endure everything and anything without complaint. It appears Cameron would like to return his fellow citizens to that robust sense of self-worth.
It is a perfectly sensible idea, and one that has resonance on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Not only will it help society on the whole, but it will improve the lives of individuals, giving them a sense of purpose and pride. But in Canada, the only politician who has been so blunt has been a First Nations leader from southern British Columbia. More politicians should imitate Louie and Cameron.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
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