Relationship support key to youth wellbeing and achievement

Peter Hart - 15 January 2010

Sadly Beverley I have to disagree.

I think we do get fairly generous tax breaks in the Tax credit schemes. But I also don't think money is the answer.

Our current culture seems to say 'if something is broken, throw money at it'. That doesn't seem to have done much good, well, anywhere!

I think there are far more serious and difficult cultural issues to deal with before we look at finances. How many relationships break down because of the permament adolesence we allow ourselves? The idea that we are always entitled to a fresh start.  How many relationships break down because the woman has an unrealistic expectation of what  man should be like, or because the man has an addiction to pornography that taints his view of what a woman should be? How many break down because people are constantly still looking for something better instead of working at what they've got?  How many people even genuinely still believe that they are looking for lifelong partners?

My opinion is that this is a cultural problem, and won't be fixed until society once again decided there are some things it deems inappropriate when postmodern fluffiness has passed us by! 

Beverley Smith - 14 January 2010

Giving people advice about marriage is not as effective as giving them financial support. If we had a tax system that recognized for instance that it costs money to raise kids and having kids reduces ability to pay tax, we'd give tax breaks for raising children. That would take a huge weight off the shoulders of parents and would reduce marital stress. If we had birth bonus as in Australia, universal maternity and parental benefits after a baby is born, income splitting as a tax option, pension benefits for the caregiving years we'd reduce child poverty and the frustration kids and parents feel that may turn them to drugs, alcohol, gangs or extramarital affairs. The state has to put up or shut up about keeping marriages intact.