THE WELFARE STATE
Sir,-This series of talks has been interesting and thought-provoking, though I would like to have heard some younger people’s views. The last speaker, Mr. H. Miller, thought the Welfare State had a tendency to make life too easy; but is the life of a miner, a timber man or a wharfie ever very easy, let alone secure? Not if judged by insurance rates or injury statistics. Mr. Miller did not make any practical suggestions to cure the apathy. He surely would not wish to do away with pensions, free doctors, compensation for injury. Many people think we have a Socialist State and confuse it with the Welfare State. Mr. Miller did not do this, but he made no mention of the wealthy, and there are some in New Zealand who may also be apathetic towards our national interests and their responsibilities. Admittedly there is a lack of responsibility in workers, but in other sections too. Is it not because the worker is treated as a cog in a wheel? In most cases neither he nor the union to which he belongs is consulted in any way about the work he is doing. Above all he does not feel he is working for the nation, his friends and relatives, but for a man or board of directors and investors he never even sees, and who probably get a big share pf the profits from his and his mates’ labour. Is it not a change in human relationships that is needed?
BARNICOAT
LUCKENS
(Titirangi).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570222.2.12.8
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 915, 22 February 1957, Page 5
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255THE WELFARE STATE New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 915, 22 February 1957, Page 5
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