Benefit Clusters

I'm going to the pub with a benefit cluster tonight. Well not a whole benefit cluster, just a part of one. Three adults and a baby, and not one of them have a real job. I agree that it's a danger sign that they didn't find any rich young professionals to move into their house with a leaky roof.

I suspect that this particular benefit cluster isn't what David Benson-Pope had in mind. How many different ways can politicans and media outlets find to say: "we don't like poor brown people"?

I've found the beneficiary bashing, the Maori bashing, the blaming individuals for structural problems and suggesting punitive responses, terribly depressing. Particularly as the dog-whistle politics (and sometimes not even that - what's it called when it get so unsubtle that everyone can hear it - is that just whistle politics) seemed to be effective, and there were so many Maori who were prepared to say what Pakeha wanted to hear (I'm looking at you John Tamihere, and also you Pita Sharples). I wasn't going to write anything. I wasn't even going to link to the few beacons of sanity that I'd read. I decided that the only thing I could contribute to this discourse was not to add my oxygen to it. But it's got to the stage where the hating on brown poor people has got too much and I need to shout back.