The backlash from the sad, superannuated and legacy union driven who seek to oppose progress by manipulating their own rentier class, is disappointing in New Zealand – but actually there is one healthy point: the argument is out in the open. Compare and contrast with, say, the UK where the government is uber-keen on PFS and SIBs but from my experience, the legacy NGOs and the ghastly healthcare blob (the nation’s largest mass murderer but bizarrely deemed an untouchable quasi-religious pillar of society amidst a rather nonsensical economically incontinent debate) predominantly desire to crush the process.
Poor Get New Profit-Driven Masters
Bruce Bisset – NZ Herald
The latest experiment to crawl out of the neolib’s toy box – so new it has yet to produce any data to say whether it works at all, let alone as well as hyped – is called a social impact bond, and it is about to transform social services.
PLY: This is truly a sad commentary by somebody so embittered he wishes nothing better for his fellow men. Heartbreaking ignorance and arrogance and ironically, a blithe disregard for the opportunity for others to improve their position in society.
Therapists Want Social Bond Plan Dumped
Jacqui Stanford – Newstalk ZB
Psychotherapists have backed a petition calling for the Government to dump its social bonds plan.
Under the plan, a non-government organisation would sign a contract with a private investor to deliver a service. An investor will see his money returned if the end result is favourable, while they will lose it if the outcome isn’t successful.
The government is introducing the initiative to deliver employment services to people with mental health conditions in the first of four social bond announcements.
A petition against the move is being hosted by grassroots campaigning movement ActionStation, with the backing of the Association of Psychotherapists.
The Association’s Chair of Public Issues, Kyle MacDonald said the government was trying an untested and experimental treatment approach.
PLY: It is a sad fact of life that bourgeois professionals are frequently the least malleable of all working groups – the legal and medical blobs see little reason to change practices that are often pre-Dickensian in origin.
“We’re not necessarily against the idea that we need to help get more people back into work,” as stated here, is the sort of quotation which comes from a warped life within the belief cycle that it is “the magic money tree” which funds the world’s economic activity.
Hitting Targets Isn’t Healthcare
Ross Henderson – Stuff
“Social impact bonds” is one of those bureaucratic phrases which means almost nothing on face value. What social impacts? Who’s being bonded? If you don’t already know about this insidious attempt to all-but-privatise our mental health.
PLY: To argue the opposite, is letting people die for want of resources, or leaving them in squalor or a cycle of crime or mental illness they cannot break, any good? For that’s the status quo these articles advocate.
‘We Think We Can Do Better’ – Bill English On The Social Bond Scheme
TVNZ
The Finance Minister says the Government is willing to spend a “reasonable amount of money” to get better results for people with mental health issues.
The Government is committing $28.8 million to set up social bonds for investors to be given the opportunity to make money from the provision of social services.
Bill English says about 50,000 people with a psychological or psychiatric condition are on benefits and while 70% of them want to work, most are not employed.
“We think we can do better,” Mr English told Q+A this morning. “We can do more for them than just put money into their bank account each week.”
PLY: Rome wasn’t burnt in a day but “We think we can do better…” is a good place to start. Again, at least we can say our foes are in the open amongst the citizens of the beautiful islands of New Zealand.