Confused re attitude to benefits and work experience

I have an idea, whenever anyone is made redundant they should be made to walk the street with a sandwich board announcing the fact. Proper, decent human beings can then be invited to pelt them with rubbish. That will teach them for being so selfish.

The government apparently doesn't agree with you, Tilly, about all work being beneficial.

It's just closed 36 factories which exist to give disabled people very meaningful work.

Supposedly some of the money will instead be given to other employers for adjustments when they employ disabled people, but in practice the disabled person has to get the job in the first place. In the current climate I'd be astonished if 20% get work.

My friend works for a food bank which gives out free food and she does see some people in a sorry state. some people have lost their jobs etc and this is in an affluent area. they can't run their car as petrol has become so expensive, they look so miserable.

I do think though that the last government did a silly things by not limiting the amount of people who could come and work in the UK from the EU which France and germany did. This has meant we have some very competent, hard working people arrive but they are making it harder for the people already here to have opportunities and get a job. this obviously puts a strain on housing as well and makes it more scarce/expensive.

Housing used to be more reasonable in the 80's/90's and more people could afford to buy a property or find social housing if not.

also I think some people on benefits do play the system and work on the black economy or pretend they are single when they have a partner in residence hence not being badly off. I am not suggesting anyone on this board does this

and in a bizzarre turn of events, I used to work in the fashion industry

clothes - but a green/global thread would be interesting....

carers are underpaid

no, No, No Cat.
Your'e one of the lucky/fortunate ones.
But life can be shit, and you maybe one day one of the unfortunate ones.
It just takes a slight change in fate/life and you'll be in the same position I was in.
Remember Karma can kick you in the arse sometimes

It depends what it is consumption of - RTM. Most people would be happy to live in warmer houses of a higher standard that reduced their energy consumption. Many parents would be happy to reduce their transport costs and consumption of fuel if more jobs were local or could be done from home.

I am drifting a bit from the point of this thread.

Like Agincourt I am a carer - we work bloody hard for our £53 a week!

I don't think many of you have any idea. My care package has been reduced from 12 hours, which helped me work full time, to 3 hours p/w on ridiculous time whereby i cannot do drop off or pick up. I had to give up my job full time , and i paid more in tax and council tax than i got back from the council for enabling my severely disabled child to do stuff whilst i was at work. Plus I paid for the other children s childcare.

If I end up dead, which i might do with such little care, as i still have to work but around my family, it will cost the taxpayer millions. My dd's care would cost in excess of 2k p/w PLUS about 100k p/y in school fees. I think you are all a bit thick or mad or just plain ignorant tbh. Yes people care for their loved ones, but they still need to work themselves, unless you believe everything the daily mail tells you

caton who do you propose has money to pay for a cleaner that that many could make a living that way. The average earnings in this town is well below the national average.

You work for your standard of living.

So do people who work in heavy, manual jobs for 40+ hours per week not deserve a decent standard of living? Do they not work hard enough to deserve a washing machine?

i have no idea how you would sell reducing consumption to most voters

I don't think reducing the welfare bill is a bad thing, and reducing consumption certainly isn't. I don't think that people working longer hours is the solution to that, particularly when so much work in the UK isn't essential and is itself a waste of resources. The solutions would be in building social housing to reduce the housing benefit bill, and improving housing stock so that heating wasn't so expensive. If people lived in housing of a decent quality, there wouldn't be as many people with preventable impairments.

catontheroof Wed 07-Mar-12 18:56:43
Why do you feel entitled to such a high standard of living, Cat? I work for my standard of living.

so erm carers don't work for their benefit then?

wanna swap?

there are lots of TMs. we are scousers..... its means 'a women with ideas above her station'

i thought the top rate of tax was actually for earners getting 150k or more or have you all been reading what they want you to buy into it?

i like jockey minti or summot minto, it's so western :o movies that is, not anti east

Agincourt no son but i could just agree with you!

Jockey Minto and his younger brother Summot Minto

Another way in which the OP's burbling is confused is that she imagines GDP is created by how hard individual people work.

Which makes it a bit tricky to explain why China - the country she cites as hard-working - has a GDP only about 40% that of the US and about 35% that of the EU.

Despite China having 4 times the population of the US and nearly 3 times the population of the EU. My goodness, those people in China must really be lazy, eh?

Alternatively, individual personal morality workiness makes fuck all difference to GDP.

You actually said that people on ESA, disabled people, should live in hostels. I don't recall your solution for the unemployed.

clothes - i dont disagree but you do know they are talking about decreasing the top rate of tax to increase the tax take?

why is sending money to africa as personal choice, but wanting to reduce the welfare bill as sign of a bad person, IYO?

Why do you feel entitled to such a high standard of living, Cat?

and anyway tillyminto hasnt your son got a really crap stupid name like jockey or summot

Yes.

Why do people have such a sense of entitlement to the benefits they're entitled to?

I think we should be told.

Well the whole thread is idealistic in one or another RTM. The reality is that as a democracy, we have collectively decided who we want to support and to what extent. The current government seems to be cutting their support to the poor of the UK, and we may vote them out for it. There isn't a great deal of support for the idea that we tax people more or cut benefits in order to pay more money to developing countries.

Some people work a certain number of hours or reduce their hours because they just work for the money. Some people choose certain occupations and work certain hours because they want to do that for a range of reasons that aren't just about money. If people individually want to send more of their income to Africa, it is up to them to do that.