Paying boofheads not to have kids

New Zealand politican and talk back host Michael Laws has stirred up a hornet's nest by suggesting that dysfunctional couples, including those known to authorities, be paid not to reproduce, "given the toxic environment that they would provide for any child in their care."

I empathise with Mr Laws, and completely agree that there are adults in society who should not, for a host of reasons, be allowed to have kids.

But I disagree totally with the notion that such societal trash should receive some financial inducement ('scuse pun) not to breed. Far from fixing the problem, the cash would mostly be spent on booze, leading to getting stonkered, resulting in shagging anything that moves. End result: more children born into a life of suffering, hardship and depravity. The cycle continues.

Better law enforcement and harsher penalties for perpetrators of child abuse and neglect is the answer.

In the comments section below the original article (hyperlink above), I repeat the words of 'Mike USA', who gets it right:

Rehabilitation is a myth. Spend your money building prisons to incarcerate those who violate laws. Don't pay them off. That only creates more of them because, for some, it's easier to take free money than to work. It's one thing if a person is unable to help oneself due to affliction. Those people need help. It's quite another thing to pay dregs who will continue to be dregs. They will just spend the money on drugs and pollute other people's children. Help the helpless, but don't help the clueless.

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