To think that people are actually getting more ridiculous in their expectations??

[Youmadorwhat]

I mean ffs, 9.99 for Netflix per month Is justified because it’s entertainment but never mind the fact that you are in deficit every month🙄

Childcare, anything medical (including hospital car parks), education, school dinners and housing should all be subsidized substantially or FREE (and 24/7) I mean should the government not just collect the babies from the maternity ward and hand them back at 18!

I even saw a thread a while back where someone stated that all extra curricular activities should be subsidized for children 🙄

I know people are struggling I get that but the government CANNOT afford to prop up everyone!! Especially when a lot of people are actually at a tax deficit anyway!! Rant over!!

Employers should pay decent wages before they line their own pockets, and not expect the taxpayer to fund their wages bill.
The government has been supporting the low wage economy for years but that is not necessarily a bad thing if the Government are taxing the companies and redistributing the tax to the lower paid workers. It would be better if they just paid their staff a decent amount but that's unlikely to happen.
One of the big problems is the way zero hours contracts are used - zero hours contracts are not fundamentally a bad thing some people wish to work this way but for many companies deliberately keep no of hours low to keep their staff hungry, wanting more but never quite getting enough...the benefits system is too clunky, it can't respond to a change in circumstances quickly enough.

This is why the benefit system should be replaced with UBI - unconditional money (raised by enforcing the collection of corporate taxing, an increase in the top tax rate - and scrapping the bulk of the benefit admin system which, these days, is mainly about profit-making-but-incompetent companies who exist to drive people into poverty).

Actually some of the most entitled and grabby people I see based on school parents dont appear to be the 1 family in a council house or the more obviously low income families. Its actually a number of the ones who have big new cars, houses etc and are doing quite nicely thank you. They always claim back the cost of the buns they buy for sports day fundraiser (for instance). Some of them strongly have the attitude... I pay my taxes and that's the limits of their generosity. I try and take the attitude that compared to paying private fees if I can support the school by buying something for a fund raiser day or a box of pens or whatever it's a very small cost! I'm less generous with my time but some other people donate that.... including some of the people types that are criticized elsewhere on thread.

What a vile thread.

Just so you know, Netflix is £10 a month but a TV Licence is £12. I cancelled my TV Licence and now use Netflix because it's cheaper.

HTH

@youmadorwhat.you can keep thinking if you want that nursery prices in Spain/Italy/France are equivalent to the UK when you consider wages but they are not.
The prices some people have given you are private nursery prices, but there are state-funded nurseries which are even cheaper. A couple of friends in Spain pay €180 and they both work, so even if they were earning minimum wage, that would be something reasonable to pay. Under a certain income you can even get a free place.
In most countries people wouldn't have to spend tens of thousands in nursery fees, so some governments manage, its a matter of priorities. How some poorer countries manage but not the UK I don't understand.

As for the rest of the comments from some people on the thread, it is depressing to see the selfishness of some people... Some people really have the need to feel superior to others just because they have money... How horrible to think that because someone has little money they cannot enjoy life at least a little.
As for the people who want to opt out of society because they don't "use" it...

“That attitude and manipulation of a good western benefit system IS THE DISGRACE!”

Bollocks to this being a widespread problem or attitude. It benefits the govt enormously for people to believe that the majority of people who claim benefits are “undeserving scroungers” or cheating the system. It means they get the support of voters to cut down on benefits because they can all feel ok about not helping others. This is the disgrace

@XingMing you're making a wild assumption there. There are 2 points to my post.

1. regardless of the amount of tax that I pay now I would happily pay more to contribute towards public services.

2. you can save as much as you can, buy your own property, get married, have kids and be financially well off living a good life but that can disappear in a moment and leave you relying upon the rest of the country to bail you out. That hasn't quite happened to me yet despite the loss of 75% of our family income. I am grateful for the NHS, state education etc etc and would still pay more if I could. I have been a taxpayer for well over 30 years.

@ spiceupyourlife

The problem with the concept of living within your means is that it is a very easy thing to say and do when you have enough to cover your basics. Yes, I agree that I should live within my means and I do, but I've got enough for the basics and then a bit more to spend as I please.

The problem is that that for some people, living within their means would mean not being able to ever buy a house, being cold in winter because you cannot afford heating, being hungry. Do you think that's OK?

Also, you are saying if you want to have children, save up? Aren't you aware that some people just cannot save anything at the end of the month? You are talking from a very comfortable position, a lot of people cannot save up... So you know all the people using food banks? How can they save up if they don't have enough even to buy the most essential such as food. What do you suggest then? Do you really think that someone who cannot save up (and you really need to save a lot to cover childcare costs!) shouldn't have any children?

I've never understood why we do not subsidize childcare for the low paid more than we do, it's a great way to spend money - encouraging and supporting people to return to work in a rewarding and practical way.

It is nearly impossible to find childcare for a child with a disability, lots more parents could work if this was put in place. IME settings are not prepared to make adjustments and informally exclude. You are much more likely to be in poverty if you have a disabled person in the household.

We don't have to just hand over money - we could remove some of the obstacles to work and improve the life chances of the poor - primarily we should be investing in good quality healthcare, housing, education including school dinners and childcare.

Also, you are saying if you want to have children, save up? Aren't you aware that some people just cannot save anything at the end of the month? […] Do you really think that someone who cannot save up (and you really need to save a lot to cover childcare costs!) shouldn't have any children?

Frankly? YES. If you cannot afford to raise, feed and clothe your own children, then do not have them. I've said it earlier up the thread, and I'll say it again. You do not have a human right to have children, and having a child you cannot afford is the most selfish thing you can do. And I'm saying that for the child, more so than for the parent or society. It is unbelievably unkind to the child to bring it into the world if you cannot look after it properly and give it a decent standard of life. You do not have to be 'rich' to do that, but you do need to make ends meet.

Mitz how is it judgmental? The poster claims they are 'well off' but can't afford sky which is about 30 a month? Ffs they are no where near well off they clearly have a modest income which they likely spend all on keeping up with the Jones with heavily financed car and giant mortgage/rental fees so they can give the impression they are well off whilst being heavily in debt and/or financed up to the eyeballs.

They are definitely not wealthy either way. People are utterly pathetic these days.

Our government just doesn't like investing in people and would rather outsource and import people to do jobs that we should be able to do ourselves from abroad.

• It doesn't like investing in education so we can he highly trained and do skilled jobs.
• It doesn't like investing in childcare so SAHPs have a chance to go back to work and pay taxes.
• It doesn't like to invest in youth services which would save money long term in MH care (and stop people being unable to hold down jobs because of this), lower crime and improve life chances
• It doesn't like to invest in healthcare until it becomes critical (ie stop a problem when it's a small problem rather than when it becomes a huge expensive one which isn't fully curable).
• It doesn't invest in decent affordable housing, but rather they prefer unaffordable pocket sized flats to be sold to people who live abroad that won't live there or rent them out
• They don't invest in local infrastructure so you get 1000s of new homes with no schools, doctors, shops, public transport links, etc

Also, you are saying if you want to have children, save up? Aren't you aware that some people just cannot save anything at the end of the month?

well then they can't afford to have children. I mean, how on earth do they think they will take care of them if they can't afford it?!?
How do you think the rest of us did?

The poster claims they are 'well off' but can't afford sky which is about 30 a month? Ffs they are no where near well off they clearly have a modest income which they likely spend all on keeping up with the Jones

hahaha most bitter and ridiculous post of the thread. Projecting much are we?

It's more likely that they manage their finance carefully and don't feel they are "entitled" to everything like so many others - who can't afford things but should have them so expect someone else to pay for them.

having a child you cannot afford is the most selfish thing you can do

Situations change. I went from owning two businesses, married to a wealthy man and working as a professional, to disabled, homeless and penniless, in six figure debt.

I could afford my kids when I had them. I scrape by now. You can't predict futures, and you can't judge people because you just don't know what has happened to them.

@ArtichokeAardvark

Totally agree with you.

Artichoke you do realise contraception has a failure rate? Are you saying poor women should have no choice other than to abort all because of money? How unethical, cruel and vindictive. No one should have to kill a much wanted baby because our incompetent government thinks handouts for the rich are OK but not for those that really need them.

Also some women like me cannot use any form of hormonal contraception and have been refused sterilisation leaving us having to use condoms which fail quite a lot. Should we just stop having sex?

Ever consider some women don't have much of a choice whether they have unprotected sex or not?

Who the hell are you to judge? BTW being a good parent isn't about money. Plenty of useless parents with money.

Also, you are saying if you want to have children, save up? Aren't you aware that some people just cannot save anything at the end of the month?

Why is this anyone else’s problem?

We were in this position, but we cut our cloth. I earned a pittance anyway so I stayed home and DH worked two jobs. Everything was second hand. We didn’t have a washing machine so I washed our clothes in the bath. We weren’t doing as well as other people at that point but I never thought anyone else/ the government should help us in any way - why should they? We made the decision to have a child, it was our responsibility to get on with it. If we wanted luxuries and a new washing machine then we shouldn’t have had a child, but that was the choice we made.

It would be like looking at my neighbours and friends and saying ‘I made the choice to have a child, but now I can’t afford everything I want, so I need you to help me pay for it all’

Moron(apt name there!) dela hit a nerve there? The fact is they are not well off if they can't afford sky that's a fact. Do you think genuinely wealthy people can't afford 30 a month? Lol!!

Financing yourself up to the eyeballs so you can keep up with the Jones is risky Actually as a poster above explained it's easy to lose it all.

Regardless the point is this person is not well off if a TV package is out of financial reach for them. Do you think Richard Branson can't afford 30 a month? Just lol that people delude themselves this much.

Also some women like me cannot use any form of hormonal contraception and have been refused sterilisation leaving us having to use condoms which fail quite a lot. Should we just stop having sex?

YES! Where does personal responsibility come into this at all? Is everything someone else’s problem?

It is not a human right to have a child?

So what made you in charge? Poor people cannot have a family?

People have been having families even before the invention of money or paid work. ..
As the poster above says, circumstances change.

What about disabled people who cannot work through no fault of their own. Should they not be allowed a child?

Fuck that. Society sucks at times.

I do not resent taxes going on helping people make the most of life. Life is already a struggle without just having nothing above the basics.

So depressing the tories on here.

Button moon what is the point of your post? You do realise you are not everyone else and circumstances differ between people and can change in an instant?

@Mammajay

My mam gets paracetamol as part of her prescription despite telling both the GP and the pharmacy that she doesn't want it. I've seen them take it off in the pharmacy yet its there on the next repeat.

Making all of thr tax dodging companies pay their way would probably make a big difference. There's millions and millions of pounds missing because of it. How far would that go to funding stuff?

I don't have Netflix but do pay for Amazon prime. I get video included with it which is lovely to have because I live quite rurally and it can be a right pain to go to the cinema, for example.