Poverty and choices

Two items of interest. First the NZ Herald reports:

Adolescents living in the most deprived areas in New Zealand drink almost twice as much alcohol than their peers living at the other end of the scale, a joint study has found.

Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and Massey University surveyed 1144 adolescents aged between 12 and 19 living in New Zealand across 10 area deprivation levels, 1 being the least deprived.

Their paper published in Health & Place found that at the poorer end of the scale, teenagers drank an average of 96.2ml of pure alcohol or 6.4 serves on each drinking occasion, while t the least deprived adolescents drank 50.6ml or 3.4 serves.

The left response to poverty is a belief that it is simply an issue of money. They say those not in work must be given more money, as they do not have enough money to afford even the basics such as food for breakfasts.

We see this in a Twitter exchange:

dH

Hat Tip: Whale

On this rare issue I am with MP Lole-Taylor. The concept of personal responsibility and choice seems to be alien to some people. If a poor person makes awful decisions, it is not their fault. It is our fault because of poverty. Never mind that if the parents did not buy so much alcohol, and gamble so much, they might not actually be in poverty.