Rehctub – you do a bit of a dance around the relevant issues of make and take.

Firstly nothings free. Someone has to do it or make it and they have to be fed and live somewhere. The cause of the decrease in services that where available in the past, is that now there are more takers taking more and less makers who are getting less for what they make.

The concept of welfare is flawed. There should be “no sit down” money (the dole) but should be replaced by a minimum wage that is higher than the dole. It is “sit down” money and only this that causes welfare dependency whether it is on a remote aboriginal settlement or the suburbs of Sydney. I believe every person of working age in this country is entitled to a fair share of this countries productivity however should be required to do something meaningful for it, for a prescribed amount of time. Most importantly these activities should be controlled and tailored at local level, not centralised government. Some activities that come to mind are SES, volunteer fire brigade, public housing, child care and elder care. Everybody has the ability to do something meaningful, whereas work for the dole is seen and is demeaning. The minimum wage should rise and fall with our nation’s productivity.

Means testing (although it is better than nothing) is a ham fisted method as it penalises productive activities as well as the parasitic ones. It should be noted, just because an individual has accrued a lot of money doesn’t mean they have earned it or deserve it. I would much prefer to see a maximum income linked to sustainable productivity that can only be achieved by productive persons. Parasite activities on the other hand, should only achieve a medium level of income. This would encourage productive activities and decrease parasitic ones. The maximum wage like the minimum should rise and fall with our nation’s productivity.

Until we have a proportional voting system we will continue to get the Ineptocracy we didn’t vote for, irrespective of the franchise.