tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876068915125303468.post5248509650210515525..comments2018-10-12T05:33:20.453-07:00Comments on Putting the World to Rights !: Alex Salmond, Childcare and the SNP - Independent Scotland ? And a bit about David Cameron and his friends too !JWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06855581921877310697noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876068915125303468.post-44955211509308602512014-01-22T02:58:12.177-08:002014-01-22T02:58:12.177-08:00Dear Jenny,
I, being strongly involved in Childre...Dear Jenny,<br /><br />I, being strongly involved in <a href="http://www.barnensratt.se/index-en.htm" rel="nofollow">Children's Right To Their Parents Sweden</a> share your scepticism towards Universal Childcare (UC) for about the same reasons you do.<br /><br />What aggravates us in Children's Right is that in Sweden & elsewhere, Scotland & SNP included, UC is "sold" to a politically ignorant population by their political representatives as if it were a generous, cost-free, gift to the said population.<br /><br />The actual facts are very different! The money required to finance UC is collected by the threat of force from the very population that is alleged to benefit, at a huge additional cost due to an effect economists often call "the Excess Burden of Taxation" at that!<br /><br />In addition, the transfer of financial resources for child care that UC requires, from parents to the state, leads to an enormous transfer of integrity and self-determination from those parents to a political elite.<br /><br />In other words, UC, inevitably, leads to the state, henceforth, deciding how small children should be taken care of, not their parents!<br /><br />We in Children's Right have written extensively about those negative effects - and others - e.g. - <a href="http://www.barnensratt.se/letters.htm#1110910-1" rel="nofollow">here</a>!<br /><br />I note that you, like most people, whose suspictions vis-à-vis UC have been raised, advocate some kind of universal child-care allowance to be paid to parents of <i>all</i> toddlers & for those parents either to stay at home for that money or use it to buy in child-care services from external service providers.<br /><br />While that kind of solution would be a significant improvement on the UC system we Swedes are saddled with at present, we still think it would be a far cry from the ideal.<br /><br />That ideal, to us in Children's Right, is a reform of our taxes, benefits and subsidies systems, leading to (i) parents' given the option to be taxed jointly in recognition of the family business the family is, (ii) the family not being taxed <i>at all</i> before it has reached subsistence level, income-wise, and (iii) child-care services, both municipal & private to be charged out at cost prices & those charges be tax-deductible in the hands of parents.<br /><br />This latter kind of solution would bring about an enormous amount of benefits, but since this comment has already become too long, I feel forced to leave to you to figure them out.<br /><br />Kind regards / Bo C Pettersson / <a href="http://www.barnensratt.se/index-en.htm" rel="nofollow">Children's Right To Their Parents Sweden</a>Bo C Petterssonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369261139807017184noreply@blogger.com