A couple of weeks ago, we ran a story on a presentation to Delta council by the Canadian Federation of University Women South Delta.
They concluded that Delta needed a social planner. If this was someone to plan Delta's many socials, I would be all in favour.
After all, we do need planning to ensure that the only white wine available at the bar is not a chardonnay. However from the gist of the article, it appeared this proposed position was not meant to ensure my satisfaction with alcohol choices.
Apparently, the position was related to dealing with poverty in the community. (In Tsawwassen, according to the proponents, poverty hides in basement suites. Which made me glad we don't have a basement. It's bad enough already with bats hiding in the attic and raccoons in the tool shed!)
I wasn't really sure what a social planner would do - other than hire more social planners and eventually have a social planning department. So I went to wiki-pedia for a definition of "social planner".
It stated: "In welfare economics, a social planner is a decision-maker who attempts to achieve the best result for all parties involved.
In neo-classical welfare economics, there is greater emphasis on Pareto optimality, in which no one's economic status can be improved without worsening someone else's.
Pareto-optimal solutions are not unique, and according to the Second Fundamental Theorem of Welfare Economics, a social planner can achieve any Pareto-optimal outcome by an appropriate redistribution of wealth by means of competitive market."
Whew, I'm not sure what that all meant, but I sure didn't like the sound of it. I don't think I want any municipal employee Pareto-optimising me.
The problem allegedly being addressed is child poverty in South Delta which is much more extensive than the presenting group first thought.
Financial poverty is caused by the lack of a predetermined level of income. Since most children don't work, they would all be poverty stricken by that definition - except the kids with really good allowances.
Child poverty is then a result of family poverty. These are issues dealt with by the federal and provincial governments who have policies that redistribute large amounts of wealth in a very inefficient manner. There is nothing a municipal employee can do to increase family income - except for the person hired to be a social planner who would probably have a very nice salary and benefit package for not doing very much.
Better to leave that money with the taxpayers of Delta. As someone who grew up in a poverty stricken single parent family, I have to attest that being poor is not that terrible a state of being - although obviously I would prefer to be rich.
Education and hard work in a free enterprise society can lift many people out of poverty.
Those that can't, have a variety of senior government programs to assist them.
Poverty is a national problem, not a municipal one. We need a strengthened economy. That will do more to alleviate poverty than a basket full of bureaucrats.
