A significant amount of people take more then they contribute

[Bluesheeps]

i appreciate mumsnet takes you out of your social circle.
But I find there’s s mad level of entitlement.

Yeah, my disabled child contributes nothing to society but gets higher level DLA care and mobility. She's so undeserving.

Well people whose children are in the foster care system, cost a fair bit, along with addiction services. Then there's people in prisons, or the people repeatedly going through the court etc system. Who are you referencing?

It's late, go to bed.

I kind of get what you mean.

Worked all my life, never entitled to benefits, don’t drink or smoke and I eat healthy so have never been to hospital and have private heath insurance.

Saving for my retirement and feeling like I have not got much the system.

@Zampa no not aimed at your situation at all.

Isn’t that the whole point of benefits, if that’s what you’re actually talking about?

Or is this one of those ‘I’m so generous and caring, but surrounded by users’ posts?

@Ponoka7 I’m not referencing them. Sorry I didn’t actually give much detail.
im referencing people who complain they get a first floor flat rather than a ground floor in council housing. People who try justify a house keep job as gruelling labour.

Are you just talking about money? If so, that's a grim and miserable world view. There are many others way to 'contribute' than financial.

@HermeticDawn no I’m completely supportive of benefits. I just dislike the not enough mentally

"50% of people are below average shocker"

Well, more than 50%, as the bell curve is not evenly shaped- of the big chunk of people earning middling money, half will be net takers and half net givers throughout their lives. But there are a lot more really quite poor people than there are very rich people, meaning that more than 50% of people will be net takers. It's fine, it's expected. I hope to be a net giver throughout my life but one bad episode of an awkward cancer, say, requiring very expensive drugs and a lengthy hospital stay, would likely negate decades of giving and push me into being a net taker over the course of my existence.

If business weren’t allowed to pay such terrible wages it wouldn’t be such as issue.

Someone I know had to move into a caravan at their parents despite two of them working full time jobs. They couldn’t make ends meet, their rent got put up so much they had no choice. A neighbour complained about them being in the caravan, the council made them move.

It worked out for the family as were able to move to the country. They have their caravan on a farm, one works in the farm for cash, the other works one day a week. They get to be home with their two kids, pay no tax on their income and get benefits. They are happy to take rather than contribute as they feel they are owed it.

"don’t drink or smoke and I eat healthy so have never been to hospital"
And of course, selected your parents carefully to ensure good genetics
And had a word with Lady Luck and slipped her a few fivers in a brown envelope
I have been to hospital twice- to have babies. Not horrendous deliveries but it would have been a fair minus in the ledger of how much I cost the state. (does the whole sum appear in my minus column? Or does half go in DH's minus column?)

"Saving for my retirement and feeling like I have not got much the system."
If you end up not needing much from the system, you win the game! Like, I pay plenty of house insurance but I really, really hope not to ever get a massive payout on it cos it'll mean the fecker has burned to the ground or something, and I like my house.

Still time to get your money's worth, but for your sake, I hope you don't.

But there’s always going to be a bottom wage. I don’t understand the argument that if minimum wage was better life would be green.

I ve taken more than I have contributed financially

I have had about half a million pounds worth of cancer treatment

I have also volunteered in prisons, schools, respite units, help lines, scouts, guides, brownies, cubs, psychiatric units, homeless shelters and hospitals, as well as fostering and taking in refugees

I have also worked in state education for decades.

I still feel guilty about the half million though

What a vile thread.

@Zepherine whys it vile?

I think having babies goes on the baby’s bill. Also education etc its not for the parent it’s for the child. Those who say they haven’t got children so aren’t ‘getting their moneys worth’ forget they were the child.

My friends point was two people working full time should be able to do so and survive. They didn’t expect to have a lot of disposable income, but enough to be able to eat. Their bills were much higher than what they were making, and they lived in a small rental in a shit area. One car. I think most people would be unhappy if they couldn’t afford food. And they were paying tax into the system. Their idea is that if the system let it get to the point where they had to pay taxes but starve they now choose to just take from the system. And funnily enough they can eat again.

@Pawpatrolsucks i completely agree. 2 full time working salaries should be in a situation better than that.

I think most of us cost more than we contribute in the end, taking into account our education, our protection from aggressors by the maintenance of the armed forces, our access to emergency services, our protection by the law, our access to things like clean water, sewage etc, and of course our medial costs, which increase with age

Absolutely disgusting thread.

My ds had the misfortune to get cancer aged 20.

So in terms of ‘taking’ from the system more than he had ‘paid in’, does that piss you off?

@Zampa , I don’t think there is a suggestion that your daughter is undeserving. There is something wrong though if the scales as unbalanced as the op suggests.

You are right. Unless you are in the top 1% you take more than you give if you add up everything. Most of a country’s income is generated by big companies, only a tiny portion is from individuals tax. If we don’t take care of everyone in society we will have to live with massive amounts of crime.

You've given a LOT more than you've taken.

But the OP hasn't given any evidence of the unbalanced scales, just a lot of vague MN anecdotes.