Comments on: Why is the government trying to turn new mums into cash cows? https://leftfootforward.org/2013/11/the-government-turning-new-mums-into-cash-cows/ Left Foot Forward is the home for UK progressives. We provide evidence-based analysis on British politics, news and policy. Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:00:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.5 By: swatnan https://leftfootforward.org/2013/11/the-government-turning-new-mums-into-cash-cows/#comment-224585 Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.leftfootforward.org/?p=76020#comment-224585 Give them a voucher, and they’ll probably spend it on a tin of baby milk.
Why not set aside areas in all public places and restaurants and stores specifically for breast feeding?

]]> By: Dakiro https://leftfootforward.org/2013/11/the-government-turning-new-mums-into-cash-cows/#comment-224584 Thu, 14 Nov 2013 10:54:00 +0000 https://www.leftfootforward.org/?p=76020#comment-224584 still, if the cost / benefit analysis works, why not use it. Principles will only get you this far.

]]> By: karl meyer https://leftfootforward.org/2013/11/the-government-turning-new-mums-into-cash-cows/#comment-224581 Thu, 14 Nov 2013 10:06:00 +0000 https://www.leftfootforward.org/?p=76020#comment-224581 I should imagine the raw cost/benefit analysis is that breastfed babies tend (on average) to have fewer castro-intestinal problems that require medication and/or hospitalisation. These medical interventions have an explicit cost (thousands of pounds a day for in-patient baby care) so if you can reduce those then large amounts of money is saved from the NHS budget.

Equally breastfeeding for the first 6 weeks has the greatest benefits with a long tail of benefits after that time so you can understand the reasoning behind front loading the money.

In essence this “bribery” is not much different to the free “stop smoking” packs the NHS spends its money on.

]]> By: Philip https://leftfootforward.org/2013/11/the-government-turning-new-mums-into-cash-cows/#comment-224513 Wed, 13 Nov 2013 13:50:00 +0000 https://www.leftfootforward.org/?p=76020#comment-224513 Straight out of the Chicago School of economics. Textbook. This is how the government wants everything to be run. Everything in the world reduced to cash incentives/penalties. Markets, markets, everywhere.

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