Government goals In the absence of goals, government's can more easily get away with doing pretty much whatever they want and not be accountable for it and even worse, refuse to acknowledge their neo liberalist bent and the exclusivity this creates. These goals should also clarify for constitutes the ideology a government is operating from. This is important because whilst the government can say its doing all it can to reduce recidivism, the reality is that the individualist ideology that operates inside of this commitment actually worsens the problem. If the government refuses to acknowledge the structural forces that have created our burgeoning prison population, and rather maintains a Strict Father ideology - 'you have been a naughty boy and must be punished for now into eternity' then our prison population and underclass will grow bigger and stronger - as it already is. Intelligent Social Policy Good economic and social policy go hand in hand. Although let's not fool ourselves into believing that having a good job and good income will change the 'poverty problem' we have in NZ. For many families poverty is the symptom. Sitting behind the problem is the effect of intergenerational marginalisation and until we intelligently and wisely tackle the effects of this, then no amount of good, job creation, economic policy will fix this problem; and I underclass will continue to grow. I know this because I've been there. I've been part of the underclass.