The papers are reporting that some of the children were not registered, but it's still crazy.
I'd speculate that this happened because the mother died young and the father basically lost it and was enabled by the renter.
Registered how? It's pretty obvious that these people were living off grid and didn't want to be registered with anyone in any way, and that (in and of itself) shouldn't be illegal.
Or are you suggesting it is okay to have children and never educate at all?
There also is a fundamental reason to trust the state over a child's parents: the state has considerably more transparency and oversight over its actions than the parents do.
Most people don't want to harm children and won't sit by when they see it happening. They want to help. That means it's better to get more people involved in the lives of children. "The state" is one way we codify that.
I think there's a good argument for enabling communities to assume that role rather than central government, but some group should be there to protect children from neglect.
This is the real child abuse here.
In Germany, I have to tell the state where I live and every time I move, I have to tell them again. I can't open a bank account, get health insurance, rent a proper place, I can't do anything, till the local council can be bothered staffing the registration office enough to see me. I certainly live at a certain place, but it's as if I'm staying at that address on holiday.
In Australia, I don't have to register with the state. If I move house, I have enough things on my mind. If a person is born, died, gets married or (sometimes) changes their name in Australia, someone has to report that fact to the government. But a person is a person, or dead, or married, or has a different name while they're waiting for the bureaucracy to do its thing.
In both cases, children have to go to school. Even in the absence of any registration or reporting, there's still an obligation. So what does the registration actually achieve?
The government has the power and ability to find out where a person lives. Why compel me to do something you can make obnoxiously difficult? - and which serves no apparent purpose?
Like what? Because most states have had registration of births for about a century.
Also, possible military service maybe?
But the GP poster is 100% correct that purposely not registering your children with the state in this day and age is hugely suspicious. You are giving up so many services and getting very little apparent benefit in return, there has to be some ulterior motive. It's not a good place to be where the least terrible answer is that you're a bit crazy in the head.
Taxation is not theft. You either work in the country and make money, and use everything around you in that country that was provided by taxes (roads, sewer, fire, police, etc) or you don't work and don't pay taxes.
For one thing, the United States has a 30% expatriation tax. They will take 30% of your wealth just for leaving.
Your stuff (which was partially acquired via exploitation of the ecosystem that is the country that wants those taxes... Bet you drove on a public road) isn't.
That would be a hazard for your neighbours though. Like it or not, living in a society also means you have duties towards your fellow citizens.
Now all hail his highness, the holy Herman Hollerith!
- Naaktgeboren, "born-naked"
- Van 't Zelfde, "same to you"
- De Naamloze, "nameless"
- Bij 't Werk, "on the job"How do you enfranchise people who have no paperwork, no id, who you don't know exist.
How do you decide whether to give someone a pension, if you don't know how old they are.
As for voting, I think it's the better plan to give everyone the vote unless you can prove they're tourists. In NZ, permanent residents get the right to vote, so it's not such a stretch. The person is, after all, subject to the laws. (Rights should be afforded to subjects, as a rule, not citizens. The change of language in the 20th century was probably not a good thing. Roman citizenship law is not actually something to emulate.) Prove they're deportable and deport them, or let them vote.
I used to live in a house the government didn't really know existed. (I think the state government was happy to believe me, but the federal government and local council struggled.) Someone would come over, verify that it was indeed a residence, and move on. This lasted a few years until I think they were all happy to acknowledge it. I think it's at least that easy to prove a person exists. (I was the first local citizen to live there in many years; the rest were generally international students.)
You'll find hardly anyone in the UK, except maybe extremists like Rees Mogg, who would object to registration of birth. Generally speaking, we quite like our government institutions and services. It's conservative politicians who are wedded to turning us into the 51st state. Even conservative voters often object to closure of services or attempts to to use a popular slogan and outright lie: "introduce the efficiency of the market" to the NHS.
Up until 1979 they were a mostly traditionalist and small c conservative party. Since then they have been steadily getting more radical and extreme.
There is no requirement for adults to register their whereabouts with the authorities.
And home schooling is explicitly legal, the authorities may or may not check on children who are home schooled.
In many western European countries these things would be radical. Both US and UK share a strong tradition of individual independence.
The Education Act simply requires full time education without explicit mention of home. Home schooling in Europe isn't exactly rare, though I know many do rule it out - perhaps around half - Germany for instance. Perfectly OK in France, Italy, Belgium and plenty of others.
You seem to be making a distinction without a difference.
Has the world changed so much that this is weird now? Weed is still illegal in 90% of the entire world.
Blackberries are a national pest, and yet sell for $80/kg in supermarkets. The average person could collect over $50 worth from the side of the road in under an hour.
Australia is not known for its efficiency nor logic.