To want to scream when posters confuse 'hardworking' with successful / well off /professional- because poor people can be hardworking too. And professional people can be under employed.

[BobbingForPeachys]

yes I know i'm averaging one AIBU thread a day ATM, am tired so it is fun. This isn't a paty political rant, it's about usage of phrases by posters and campaigners of all ilks.

Anyway this is a big bugbear of mine

'X do nothing for the hardworking people'

'We will support hardworking famillies' (always picture five year olds cleaning streets with that one!)

'I need my thirty four homes / swan hotel / private jet as a reward for being so hardworking'

blah blah blah

What you mean is you will support the more professionally employed or affluent

Which is fine, society needs all those people to function

But it also needs poorer people to staff nurseries / be HCA's / mop up poo in care homes. The affluent cannot survive without the less well paid, that's a basic fundamental of life under our system.

And that's hard work too, and just as valid. Dh used to manage 60 salaried hours a week when he worked for El Shitty Company years ago, for a fab £18k per annum (normal for area), and moved job when his boss dropped dead at his desk. And I am a hardworking carer in fact. Different existences, no less effort.

Just respect people who comtribute by fulfilling their job or role please.
Regardless of how many GCSE's or ££ it creates for them.
Is all thanks.

[JoeyBettany]

Well said.

[MintyCane]

YANBU

[EmNotPGYet]

See I never read it as that - I always think that when the politicians talk about 'hardworking' families that they mean the average-income, bog standard, Daily Mail-reading type family. I don't read it as meaning really poor people, or particularly wealthy people. I don't know if I'm alone in this?

Really it should mean anyone who works hard to support themselves and their family. Seems a bit harsh on those who would like to do so, but are prevented from doing so by ill health or unemployment.

[katiestar]

and those who are 'at the top of the tree' make their money off the backs of the minions below them.

[weegiemum]

Totally Peachy!

My dh is a 'hardworking' doctor, but he couldn't do his job without the nurse, receptionists, dispenser, cleaners, therapists etc who work every little bit as hard as he does.

Or me, who looks after the house and 3 kids outside school hours and dd2 often during them as well as she has a disability (as well as studying).

More pay does not equal more important!

[bibbitybobbityCAT]

Y a n b u. Not at all. Makes me want to scream too.

[Lizzylou]

YANBU, not one little iota.

Just because someone earns more, it doesn't mean that they necessarily work harder. Not at all.

[BobbingForPeachys]

EmNot I an see it when they seem to mean average - Joe

but that's not quite the ones I mean

I don't want anyone to think I mean any aprticular thread- becuase I don't,but it does crop up- I work hard so why should I X, Y Z

Well yes you do

Well done

Me too

Agree about those whoa re rpevented from doing so- DH gone back to Uni / wprking PT after a redundancy. I would have thought 'people who are trying their best' is a far better term tbh

[BobbingForPeachys]

Oh justabout hello!

yes I did get it so sorry- am being a bit crap A^TM

will try and respond but if I dont just hassle me please so I dont forget

[Podrick]

Well generally the weatlhy believe that they got there on merit and the poor think it has been their bad luck that they are poor.

I think it is a mixture of the two but largely about luck - luck of birth, luck of genes and the fortune of opportunity smiling upon you.

The wealthy have more influence and often claim they work harder - this is in the main utter tosh and YANBU.

[Lizzylou]

Footballers earn shit loads, not sure they work proportionally harder than Nurses/Teachers/Cleaners/Checkout Staff etc etc
They obviously don't.

I know it's all market forces etc etc.

But a lot of it is luck, where you live and where your talents lie.

And sometimes where your moral compass points (am thinking Jordan et al here)

[Lizzylou]

Podrick you put that so much better than me!

[TheCrackFox]

Tracey Emin is leaving the country because she is paying too much tax. Farting about with unmade beds cannot be seen as "hard working" more like "bloody lucky".

[PerryPlatypus]

YANBU.

It crops up time and time again, especially when there's any mention of money being paid out to families on lower incomes.

"Why should I be penalised for working hard and have to pay more tax?"

• completely ignoring/forgetting/refusing to believe that those on lower incomes work bloody hard too.

[muggglewump]

YANBU. I mop up poo in a Care Home!

[sayithowitis]

YANBU. it really, really p's me off when i read about rewarding hardworking families where the implication is that hardworking =more money. I consider DH and I to be very hardworking. He works for a major company, regularly puts in the equivalent of an extra day and a half a week and gets paid under £20 000 for the pleasure. I work 'pt' in the public sector, average about 32 hours a week and get paid for 25 hours earning about £700 a month. Therefore we struggle financially. Badly. Bit absolutely not because we are any less hardworking than anyone else who brings in a lot more. There is definitely a section of society who assume that if you are not earning mega bucks, it is because you are not working hard enough!

[wicked]

I don't think it is helpful bringing premiership footballers or other slebs into the debate as there just aren't enough of them to count.

What I have observed on Mumsnet is that 'ordinary' hard working is actually a euphemism for blue collar workers who are in receipt of substantial benefits tax credits.

While these people may work 'hard' for 7.5 hours a day, they really don't have round-the-clock responsibility that many middle managers have. White collar workers may not work physically hard, but they are under a lot of pressure (especially in the current economic climate) and don't always get to switch off, even during holidays. They often have to work away from home, and don't get a realistic choice in their working hours. They have to grovel to their bosses and generally never put a foot out of place. They have to be all-singing and all-dancing. There is no union protecting their rights.

They earn every penny of their salary.

[Lizzylou]

Wicked, my DH is very much White collar, as I was I suppose pre-DC.
He works no harder (actually he will say substantially less so) than he did in menial jobs pre-Uni and this job.
Oh, and we get no benefits, excepting CHild beneift

[WinkyWinkola]

Absolutely, BobbingForPeachys.

Anyone in any doubt as to the poor working hard could have a look at this book:

Polly Toynbee writes rather well on the subject. For once.

[UnquietDad]

So glad to see this said on here. It's about time.

It doesn't help that most political parties use the word "choice" when in fact what they mean is "money".

[fluffles]

i always read 'decent hardworking families' to mean 'not those benefit scroungers we all hate'

it is inciting hatred if you ask me and it's a classic tory line (which unfortunately new labour have picked up ) to appeal to those with conservative values who believe in small government and keeping what you earn and not paying for a social safty net.

[lovechoc]

fluffles that would be my take on it too. to be it comes across as those who actually go out and earn a crust every day, not the benefit scroungers.