Another depressing and entirely predictable conversation yesterday. I won't say where or with whom: it's irrelevant. The conversation was the classic and can be distilled down to:

"The government is giving Ukrainian refugees EUR 20 a day in support but it is giving XXX [citizens] only EUR 20 a month for child support."

Any normal European government gives its citizens large-scale social welfare in the form of public education, public healthcare, and a range of other benefits depending on income level. These can indeed include unemployment insurance, free housing, paid maternity leave, additional support.

The cost of this to the public is far greater than EUR 20/month. The benefits of this are enjoyed overwhelmingly by the citizens of that country.

The social contract in Europe is based on mainly state mandates whereby people pay into a social welfare system and in turn are supported by it.

We can argue at length over quality, monopolistic rights, corruption, exceptions, and more -- and I have, at length, in my writings.

But I find it pathetic to begrudge a European refugee population public social support. Especially one who has been thrown out by violence from their homes through no fault of their own. And where men aged 18-60 have been deliberately prevented from leaving Ukraine by its government to fight.

I find it particularly reprehensible when I consider who was making this comment: someone educated through a [free] bachelor's degree in a state university, and someone who has still never worked a day in her life -- but has gotten everything paid for by state or family.

We are in the middle of the first large-scale, state-to-state warfare in Europe since the second World War. It has already created between 3.4 and 4 million international refugees and a further 6 million+ internal refugees. Mainly women, children and aged.

Let's put our small-mindedness aside and rise to the occasion.