Fuck it - the government will look me

The issue is that there seem to be more people who want to break and take from the system than there are people who want to build and contribute

Isn't this issue? More people, including pensioners, taking from the UK purse, it's been a steady shift in this direction over the last 20 years. This isn't supposed to make those in need defensive as solutions have to be found.

So far the only solutions are aimed at taxing those who are already struggling, which might be appropriate for the immediate black hole however the Gov also needs to encourage a culture of greater resilience so that the reliance on Gov is reversed.

Ultimately people will need to be more self reliant because the UK is falling down the economic tables so therefore can't sustain current situation.

What choices do you want? Your posts are very vague. Please provide some hard examples that can be analysed.

I’m not sure I hundred per cent follow but I think I agree to some extent. I am a single parent having left a very toxic relationship (didn’t see a single red flag until we had a baby, just for anyone rolling out the very constructive “shouldn’t have had kids with a bastard” advice 🙄).

The government are happy to give me UC to top up my minimum wage job indefinitely it seems but they won’t pay me UC if I go to university to study an extremely vocational, in-demand degree for a couple of years (I was actually hoping to do part time masters, part time working, studying in the evenings so I would still be bringing in some cash but I was told a hard no, if I’m studying I’ll get nothing). Student loans wouldn’t cover it so I’m back to the drawing board.

😂

Fuck off.

@Rrfdssf I don't think that theory works with years of low growth & wage stagnation & now high inflation

Why ARE you worried about that?

You sell your house, give up work, go on benefits, move to a smaller house.

You still don't have an inheritance.

You don't get to live in the big house.

You HAVE the big house and well paid job so it's a definite option for you. Give it a wee try.

Do you think there are people surviving on benefits living in council houses who can think to themselves 'dyou know, maybe I'll stop being on benefits, work in marketing on 100k and buy a 4 bed house in surrey' and have a realistic option to do that? If they could dyou think they'd then go 'nah, better not, stamp duty is looking a bit tricky' ffs

Oh dear OP, I don't think you're quite understanding this poster's issues.

should not

I wouldn’t be worried about this weird stamp duty charge and the government wouldn’t take it for care charges/ inheritance when we’re gone.

Why do people think they should have to pay for their care though?

When I read about macroeconomics I hear a lot about "Keynesian stimulus"

I've just suddenly realised after seeing it three times this morning on different threads that I want PPs who make a statement then add "No?" at the end of it to fuck off.

@Rrfdssf pause the triple lock for one.

Tons of things. For example, once you have a couple kids in tow, if you’ve not previously trained into a position how on earth are you supposed to?

I'm confused now, if you are talking about choices then surely having dc before you are trained is a choice?

I am all for everyone having different views etc but I cannot comprehend someone looking at someone who is on benefits and being jealous. It's not just the money it's how you I assume are treated as someone on benefits or disabled, how you are marginalised, the impact on your self esteem , the doors that are closed to you. Why would you want that?

What do economic experts, like actual academics say we need to do?

@amibeingaknob the way it's going it's inevitable as the demographics no longer support the Ponzi model.

It's lovely for you @Phonicshaskilledmeoff that you have had a life with the power and agency to make all the good choices. Well done you.

Governments have to live in the real world and deal with systems that have been running for decades already and with people who have been living with those existing systems for decades. Maybe you can theorise a perfectly integrated system that creates all the nudges towards self sufficiency of which you speak, but you still have to account for the people who are in difficult circumstances right now who got there through decades of disempowered and inequitable systems and have not had a chance to avoid those circumstances. You also have to consider the rights of the children born into families where the adults haven't benefited from the empowerment and equity thatmight enable them to make good decisions, knowing that for children the benefits of being with imperfect and flawed parents who sometimes make terrible decisions but who love their kids absolutely can sometimes far outweight the alternate benefits of being looked after with plenty of excellent decisions for their health and education but without the love of their family. You therefore cannot just decide not to provide support even to those whose circumstances might have been avoided if they'd made different choices.

Certainly different solutions have been tried over the years. The workhouse system was very much in line with your mindset - the absolute fallback for what would happen if you couldn't fend for yourself was quite deliberately made to be something to be feared and avoided at all costs, so that anyone who possibly could avoid it did so by whatever means necessary. The cost of that in human suffering is not something that most of us fortunately are able to comprehend. It is not and cannot ever be humane to say to anyone "well your current predicament is due to your own bad choices therefore we will not help you, it's your own problem" and in most cases the reality is that the spiral of bad choices began with that person's parents, not themselves, and they themselves had little power to change paths.

If you could start with a blank slate and ensure your policies start being enacted from around about when humans started being more sentient than their animal forebears and having hierarchical social systems so that everyone grew up with them already in place, then I am sure you'd be quite right.

You think everything is fair because YOU didn't face barriers. That's what you really mean whether you know it or not.

I grew up poor, both parents disabled young, one through a genetic condition the other a workplace injury. We grew up on benefits. Constantly broke and parents smoked which used a ridiculous amount of money even in the 80s. But sure what else did they have (they had 5 kids to think of something I don't agree with my last statement it's just what was said)

From 11 I worked from fruit farms then babysitting, local shops, kitchen porter and every penny went back into the house for the basics. Luckily I'm very very academically gifted and despite working until 10pm every night did really well at GCSE and A level and went to university for a good degree. I didn't do medicine despite wanting to and having the grades as I could never have afforded to not work awhile studying. I worked 20-30 hours a week at uni in call centres, studied until 1/2am and got a first.

My children have a very privileged upbringing. They won't have to do all that and will have the choice of any career academic or otherwise. They won't have to figure out the housing market, credit cards, savings accounts etc because I taught myself and willt each them

However I constantly see people in professions less suited to the role than people I know who grew up poor but lacked educational advantages and now work in lower paid civil service type jobs etc where they've done well but not had the extra push that more well off people have had to reach their full potential.

We're 90% luck. Where your born and how much your parents earn can make it break your future. Inherent academic ability will dictate how much you can overcome bad circumstances so there will always be those who prosper from poor backgrounds, those who screw up from well off background but the middle of the bell curve will have vastly different outcomes based on diet as a kid, emotional care as a kid, availability of time to learn rather than having to work or acts a carer as a kid.

The idea our choices impact 90% of our lives is only ever believed by those who have been blessed either financially or academically or both.

The resentment you feel now is that even by making the right sensible choices the life you expected as you age will not come to fruition.

Apart from disability I am all for a small state. I am someone who came from absolutely nothing to something by making good choices and relocating round the country for opportunity. My sisters made poor choices and had children as teenagers and did not bother to educate themselves further than GCSE level. One of them didn’t even take her exams. We all had the same poor and chaotic childhood. Two of their children also had children as teenagers, one became a grandmother at 34.

"Should I just spend my money, move into a smaller house and quit my job. At this point I think I’d be better off."

How would you be better off now and in the longer term?