Social Rehabilitation Minister Dale Butler has pledged to get people off welfare and into work after lashing out at youngsters who rejected low paid jobs despite their lack of skills.

He said Government supplemented low wages and those working have the chance of progressing to better positions.

He told The Royal Gazette: “Today’s generation don’t see that as their road map. Their parents saw all jobs as being noble.”

He wants to help get the able bodied off assistance — some of whom thought it was a right for life.

“A lot of women come in — two or three children, seeking Government assistance.

“Is there anything we can do to graduate them? They seem to think they can stay there for life.”

He said the project to get more able-bodied people off welfare and back into work could take two years.

“We are concerned about the development of human potential as opposed to making you wards of the state where you will be for life,” he said.

“So get in there, do what your parents did — establish a pattern of being punctual and getting things done as compared to the pattern we are seeing now of people showing up on a Monday and not showing up on Friday because they know the Government is going to bail them out — or Mrs. Cooper.”

He said Coalition for the Protection of Children head Sheelagh Cooper had been critical of low wages.

“And she even made a personal attack against me in my capacity as restaurateur.

“I don’t have a response to her on that other than to say businesses, to survive, have to be profitable.”

He said people shouldn’t be discouraged by entry-level low wages.

“You can make a decent salary as a dishwasher or a waiter or a chef in training. You can make 5-6-700 dollars as a pot-washer.”

Mr. Butler declined to say whether a minimum wage was a good idea but said the implications should be looked at and debated.

“Businesses survive on profitability not on ‘I have to give you a job and pay a thousand dollars’.

“In the past 15 years, things have changed. Bermudians had a mantra — you work hard during your youth so you can cool out during your old age.

“They changed that to cool out during your youth. But guess what? You are going to have to work hard during your senior years.”

He said Bermudians in days past progressed “in spite of” racism and inequality.

“Now they change that to ‘because of the fact I didn’t have a daddy, I can’t achieve’.

“Bermudians used to say ‘in spite of the fact you didn’t have a daddy, you can do just as well’. We did.

“Young people sit with their arms folded while we sat with our arms open to get on with life. Now it’s ‘Come and do for me’. Uh, uh. It was ‘What can we do for ourselves?’.”

He said 90 to 95 percent of Bermudians worked hard and made time. “It’s the five to ten percent we are talking about.”

Bermuda’s expatriate population understood about working through adversity — as the Bermuda’s previous generations of immigrants had, said the Minister.

“All the workers coming in now have that old-fashioned Bermudian work ethic — all of them from the Filipinos to the Croatians — they are about getting on with life.

“Life is unfair but I can do something with the hand that has been dealt to me?

“Today’s young people are like ‘You didn’t give me four aces? I am not going to play with four kings’.

“You had a group of people up to 1959 with every roadblock in their way, but that didn’t stop blacks from getting degrees — even when there were no scholarships. They were getting ready for jobs.

“Now it’s ‘because I don’t have a Bermudian teacher, I can’t learn’. Nonsense! ‘Because I don’t have air conditioning, I can’t learn’. ‘Because I don’t have a daddy’. ‘Because of all these crutches’.

“We have a growing number of people with crutches saying they are handicapped. But really they are not.

“If they dropped them and they are told ‘you have a responsibility’ — your mummy and daddy did — you can get on with life and get something done.”

He said the negative attitude had just become part of the national psyche.

“You see it all the time from talk radio to any plan the Government wants to have — we will find ten things wrong with it before we look at the benefits.

“If you were ever to call talk radio to talk about the good things going on, the phone is dead. It’s in the national psyche to find what’s wrong.

“We are going to change the national psyche from looking at one or two cracks that exist to looking at the fact that in this country, every ingredient necessary for success is here.”

The Minister said there had been a long-term process of lowering in standards in all sectors including schools, homes and even churches.

He cited a case of girls in their late teens shouting obscenities in the street in broad daylight without challenge.

Teachers were hamstrung by policies which forbade proper punishment, said Mr. Butler.

“Look at the case where that kid was allowed to use sexual language to a teacher and he ends up back in school.

“Teachers think ‘If I complain I get nowhere’. As a school principal, I would have personally expelled that boy and put my job at stake.

“Nobody talks to kids in a harsh tone. We can’t spank them. If we chastise them orally that’s considered to be verbal abuse. The kids know it and they do whatever they want.”

He said parental pressure had led to a softening of school discipline which now hampered teachers and principals.

“We should have stood up to those handful of parents,” Mr. Butler said.

Asked about what Government was doing to change the malaise, he said: “Sooner or later we are going to have to take some action. It’s the same way we tolerated the machete thing.

“I am hoping, with this new administration, we are not going to wait two years until things get out of hand, we are going to nip them in the bud.

“We are not going to wait two years until we come up with the bladed weapons bill.”

[obox] Despite pushing to reduce the numbers of people on financial assistance Mr. Butler said those who remain could be in for raise.

“People have been in asking for an increase — we are very sensitive to that because we haven’t had any increase in funds in a few years but all costs have gone up — housing, amenities, electricity.

“We are hoping for additional funds for food allowance vouchers and other needs.”

Butler takes aim at social ills