A taxa de televisão no Reino Unido

Uma pequena nota de Theodore Dalrymple no City Journal acerca da solução governamental para o problema das mães solteiras, algumas das quais foram presas por deixarem repetidamente de pagar a taxa de televisão:

A liberal think-tank close to the government has come up with a solution to the problem: halve the license fee for single mothers. In other words, we should subsidize a subsidy, in the name of a universal “right” to misinformation and trashy entertainment (and at the same time confer yet another incentive—albeit a small one, though such incentives are additive—for single parenthood). Reportedly, the government is favorably inclined toward the proposal.

Here is the definition of current British social policy: an idiocy wrapped in a lunacy wrapped in an absurdity, to produce misery and squalor.