But most rural areas have little tax base and high unemployment. The same holds for the bulk of working-class urban communities. But when government has adopted a neoliberal economic policy like the growth, employment and redistribution programme, subsidies are out of the question. We must avoid subsidies. We must ring-fence to build a competitive economy made up of millions of economically active people who cannot afford a glass of water.
Policy makers cling to the notion of means tests.
For a person to be declared indigent they must fill out lots of forms in triplicate, get a letter from their pastor or imam to verify that they are not working, and then probably take three taxis and stand in a queue for six hours to convince some bureaucrat that they are poor. Implementing an indigent policy is good business. It can even create a few jobs for bureaucrats who have to review the forms and make sure all the boxes are ticked. Seemingly it is better to employ gatekeepers at the watering hole than to hire people from communities to lay pipes and install water connections. Not because they are not a good idea they are.