Propping-up Fundamentals

What was it Tony Blair said about marriage and single parentage? Do I look bovvered? No, that's not it, although it does show that Tony missed his true vocation in life. It was, in fact, said to be a 'good thing', but we shouldn't see it as a 'marriage versus lone parentage', contest.

Well, Tony, your Chancellor does see it as a contest, and he comes down hard on the side of single-parents:

Parents who earn less than £50,000 a year would be better off splitting up, it was claimed.

Benefits and taxes are weighed so heavily in favour of lone-parent families that couples need to bring in twice the national average income before staying together has a financial advantage, a report said.

Research by Patricia Morgan for the Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank, has provided more evidence that large numbers are either living apart or hiding the fact they are a couple just so they can hold on to tax credits and benefits.

Brown's motivation is an interesting question. I'd suggest that the housing market may be one of his main concerns, and with the twin policies of mass-immigration and encouragement of living alone, the current government has created a demand for 250,000 new houses per year. Like I've said before, the fundamentals are probably the most important part of the housing market's increase, although I still believe that speculation is also a main cause for the boom, so to shore them up probably seems like a good idea. And, the recent havoc created by the American market's decline, probably strengthened this belief.

The social consequences, however, will far outweigh any temporary benefits derived from this easy-money non wealth-creating situation. So, we now know where to look for the where and when of our society's further descent into the abyss.