crackpots and crackwhores

it's so frustrating when blogger eats your posts. anyway, what i was trying to say in a post which has now vanished into the ethereal world, is that bernard landry is clearly a crackpot whose maniacal schemes should offend every self-respecting quebecer. there's a growing popularity within social policy towards studying the idea of conditionality. while hardly new, conditionality is become an increasingly popular means by which governments try and control the behaviour of certain groups by linking benfits with some sort of socially accepted behaviour. for the most part, this has meant trying to link benefits for the poor with some other "normative behaviour" like getting a job or getting married before having children. bernard landry clearly smoked some crack and then read a book about this idea.

it's one thing (which i still don't agree with) to try and make people receiving employment insurance benefits visit a jobcentre each week, or try and link a housing allowance for poor individuals with staying in a job longer than 6 months, or linking a space in a council estate with staying drug-free. it's another thing to link two realms which are not at all proven to be causally linked: like student loan debt relief and having babies. i have read the research that landry is making this decision upon, having even promoted it is propaganda value when fighting against student debt. this research suggests that people will delay future life choices (such as buying a house or having a child) if they feel financially unstable or have limited resources (like devoting a good chunk of your disposable income to paying off your student loan). however, as interesting as this research is, it goes nowhere near expressing a causal link. for landry to link the two is completely absurd. to ignore the plight of student debt for the non-procreating, to create personal financial incentives for children (as opposed to household incentives like the child benefit which simply works that the government will help support you with the expenses you incur from having a child) that necessarily commodifies children in a sick way, to discriminate against those who can not or choose not to have children is socially regressive, prejudiced and indicative of a social policy gone awry. i hope quebecers will spot it as such...

in other news, i'm on my day off from rehearsals for jesus christ superstar. term has wrapped up and i have only one more paper to complete! the show is going to be fantastic and then i'm on vacation :) today is the official day to lie in, have a bath and have dinner with friends :)