AIBU to believe that the cost of living crisis is a load of nonsense

[MaryWils24]

So I wake up this morning to find that 14 million people are trying for Oasis tickets. A mediocre rock band and a “reunion” tour just to create a retirement fund for two already multi-millionaires.

The question is - where are so many people getting the money from to buy tickets? On one hand people moan about the “cost of living” but can easily find £500 to fund this nonsense.

Madness.

People should stop moaning about the cost of living if they can waste money on things like this. They are either getting too much income from their job/benefits (if they can afford this) to complain about “cost of living” or they should stop moaning about increasing food/fuel prices!

Rant over!

I think it goes beyond that.

You only have to look on here at people saying that they can’t afford to buy their kids a smartphone/designer gear etc and the responses that the child will be bullied if they don’t have these things and they’re disadvantaging their children by not finding the money.

What it don’t understand is how come, for the most disadvantaged, the DWP do not give food and energy vouchers instead of a cash benefit?

If the DWP gave vouchers as such (that could only be spent on food or energy) then the least well off would always have access to food and energy.

More often than not, sadly, it is people’s own poor choices and financial mismanagement that increases their own destitution. Such as increasing their credit card debt (and paying interest) on non-essential things like concerts. When they then need to pay interest, this takes away from the weekly food budget.

Vouchers ensure that people always had access to food and fuel.

You are such a dickhead, honestly. We are getting hammered by the COL crisis. I don't even have fucking instagram! I have a bachelors degree, working in my field. OH is a qualified tradesman. We are struggling to keep our head above water. According to you, I should be spending my free time and whatever spare coins we have to further educate myself in the hope of what? Getting a second job?? But can't treat myself to maybe one little concert for my own sanity?

Your stereotype descriptions of the people you think are struggling in the COL crisis are highly insulting!

@AnywhereAnyoneAnyTime Yes, that is awful. Kids have no idea at that age. It is ridiculous how advertisers can target younger audiences like this and create a sense of peer pressure.

Parents should take some responsibility not relent to such forces, yet they are so hooked in consumerism that they wouldn’t even think to do so.

I read this week that EE doesn’t even sell smartphones to under 18’s - a sensible policy. Often parents are unknowingly enabling consumerism from a dangerously young age.

Oh you can bugger off with this idea.

I worked my whole life, I physically can't anymore.

So ypu think my life should be restricted to just food and energy?

I am a human being, not a bloody hamster who needs the minimum of everything possible to get by.

It would cost more. Each retailer would have extra admin to do dealing with the vouchers so they would have to be given money on top of the voucher value to cover this, then the DWP would also have more admin costs in reimbursing the retailers.

@FatmanandKnobbin No, but if your food and energy were provided as vouchers and then you had a reduced cash benefit then you would still have some spending choice for non-essentials, but you would be protected from ever having no food or heating.

I thought for a while you were a troll @MaryWils24, but the more you post the more it becomes obvious that you are genuine and that’s frightening really.

@BalmyLemons But it would protect the most vulnerable so surely the increased admin cost would be offset by a wider societal benefit. I am also sure I have seen a similar scheme for something like Healthystart where people used vouchers/cards to spend on food.

I fucking hope you're on a windup now. But then I do know that some people genuinely think this.

Imagine being this unpleasant and choosing to share it publicly.

Would the state fund the increased admin costs, or do you just think Tesco et al are going to do it out of the kindness of their hearts?

Even poor people are fully human - we don't tell them how they have to live and we don't make decisions for them

Sone people might even prefer to go hungry for a while to do something important to them , even if you don't like it or think it worthwhile

Well anyone reading the news/listening to Labour Party would think yes everyone is living in poverty.
In reality I think it is a much smaller percentage of the population than we are led to believe.

Yes but when it is their entire benefits. What about clothes, toilet paper, home/car repairs, insurance, petrol..? your idea would be horrifically expensive, not teach anyone about budgeting, increase discrimination, just look up people getting abused in the US for using food stamps.

Why spend a crap tonne of money on changing a system when it would be much cheaper, more efficient and less dehumanising just to provide proper support to a small group who struggle? If you're happy to pay more tax to cover the cost of this system fine, but remember, many of the social issues we have right now and arguably Brexit were caused by this sort of punitive, backwards Tory ideology.

Because its too expensive to administer. People need more than just food and fuel. They need clothes, shoes, travel to medical appointments and job interviews, cleaning products, toiletries etc. By the time you've set up the administration for distribution of all of that, plus the facility for extenuating circumstances then you're looking at far more cost than giving cash. Plus the Conservative government decided that people should be taking more responsibility for their budget rather than less and actually moved away from funding specifics like rent towards a single payment the claimant had to budget. It was to teach the poor to manage their money better. I thought you'd be all for that.

Ridiculous post @MaryWils24 but you must know that.

And 14 million people queuing? I doubt that very much! Surely not!

@5128gap To a point giving housing benefit as a lump payment that the Claimant took responsibility for was a good idea in principle through helping developing budgeting skills. However, for those that really can’t manage budgeting and make poor choices, the higher costs of the state issuing vouchers or prepaid cards would be a good investment as it would protect them.

But considering the extra costs involved wouldn't it be better to use a targeted approach rather than a blanket voucher scheme costing billions?

@BalmyLemons Not from my perspective as some people would still, sadly, make more choices. There would also be wider benefits to society if food provision was protected through vouchers, such as less shoplifting and abuse of retail workers.

@HeySummerWhereAreYou Yes, unbelievable, that number looks accurate. If you can get onto Ticketmaster you will see that the queues for each of the shows is in the hundreds-of-thousands for every night.

So I am forced to spend a certain amount on food per week?

Sometimes the kids are away, do I still have to do a £150 (or whatever)food shop?

I can't make the choice to spend less on shopping and save for other things?

How would you implement it? Do we get them weekly? I can't go food shopping weekly. If its monthly then lots of people don't have the storage space for that.

What about the food/essentials I buy elsewhere online , how would I do that under your shit voucher scheme?

What about when I was in hospital? I needed food there and the kids needed food at home, how would that have worked?

There's so many holes in your plan there that it's completely unworkable.

You know rich people make shitty choices too right? Affluence doesn’t equate to better or more intelligent people.

Your thread is displaying this.

You're a tit
That is all

You're right. You're going on 3 trips to Asia in the next 6 months when that money could be better spent on a financial education, people like you need to be stopped. You think that giving unemployed people vouchers instead of cash will reduce shoplifting and abuse of staff, it is best that you're not given any cash unsupervised in the future.

When your life is crap and you have nothing to look forward to ever your choices are different to the choices of someone who knows they will have hope

It's why very poor people might drink or smoke - anything to numb the pain of living

Although we have no evidence that this is the group who are trying to book tickets