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So..Britain..

77 replies

Lanark2 · 01/03/2016 21:53

Overheard in gym today, a 20something woman, explaining how she gets up at 4am to clean at a chain store's offices before work, and has done for over three years, not to have a holiday, but just to live. My work has a guy who is making himself I'll eating just bread and ridiculously cheap coleslaw sandwiches, to keep his work food bill below £1 a week so he can afford the commute. I am surviving on lentil stews and £3 chickens, and had a month without being able to shower or use the toilet because I couldn't afford a plumber until next month. Another person takes home the work toilet paper and teabags because she can't get by (zero hours) and at my second/third job, some staff live on food that is thrown away by that workplace because their wages are too low to live on as well. What is happening??

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TheGoldenApplesOfTheSun · 02/03/2016 21:07

I'm reminded of this comic: thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate

To those saying all people have to do is pull themselves up by their bootstraps and try harder - grow up. Sometimes life is cruel and unfair and people suffer duebto no fault of their own. We shouldn't have to put up with growing inequality and a shitty life for so many.

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OneTiredMama · 02/03/2016 21:35

People saying that these complaints are just first world problems make me so Angry In my city (which is very small) we have just had a third person die on the streets in as many weeks. I work in schools and have seen, first hand, children coming from homes where three or more are sharing a single bed and rug, children coming in underweight as their parents can't afford food and constantly getting ill because they can't afford to heat the house or have a nutritious meal.

Not all of these families are visibly living in poverty, they often try their hardest to look like they're coping but unfortunately it's just a facade. So when people say 'It's regional' it really isn't, you're just haven't seen it yet. The fact that we're in a first world country makes it even worse. There's no excuse for this level of poverty in such a wealthy and developed country.

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