Poor kids, poor kids

(teksti on julkaistu myös PES@ctivists blogissa)

How appropriate that PES has childcare week now; in Finland the Conservatives who won the parliamentary elections this March, are now showing the true nature of "HOPE" that was their campaign platform.

One of their first actions has been to announce that everyone will have to pay for the daycare of children, also the unemployed and the single parents with very low income. In Finland until now, the public daycare of children has been regarded as one of the flagships of the Nordic Welfare State, giving also the kids of the poorest homes such basic benefits as decent food every day, and allowing mothers, also single mothers, to go to work and take care of their family.

During the election campaign, the Conservatives blamed the Social Democrats for having wasted public money into what they called "employment-creation-tricks" and beautifying the unemployment statistics, whereas the labor market in fact would need more workforce for low-paying jobs (such as healthcare, care for the elderly, childcare, you know what kind of work is not regarded fancy, fit for a man, and worth paying for).

And now, what else does this proposal mean than taking (mostly) women off the workforce, because they are supposed to stay at home and take care of their kids. Kinder, Küche, Kirche, as the German used to say, keep women between the stove and the bed. That is what they call "restoring family values".

This suggestion of the Conservatives, still supported by the Prime Minister's Center Party, is so appalling that also the Greens, who are in the coalition Government now, have had a really hard time defending it.

Sure, the poorest families will always get free daycare for their kids, "for social reasons", the Conservatives say. That would mean writing applications, getting scrutinized, getting labelled as "a social case".

This is the fundamental difference between neoliberal welfare policies of the Conservative and true equity: pennies and cents for the beggars instead of equal access to basic services.