Fuck it - the government will look me

[Phonicshaskilledmeoff]

I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the way our country is run. I love my country, but what on earth can I do to fix it? the Rachel reeves pension and stamp duty rumours have tipped me over the edge.

I believe 90% of our lives is the summation of our own choices. Bar (some of) our own (and families) health and tragic life events, there is very little we can’t choose in this country.

I’m not saying that the playing field is fair - I absolutely acknowledge that some groups face structural barriers that make good choices harder. Others are unaware those choices even exist. That’s where government should step in—not to equalise outcomes, but to equalise access to meaningful choice.

I think we all acknowledge that bad governments are ones that take away choices. This government, however is also taking away choice by incentivising bad choices. Policies should nudge people toward self-sufficiency, not make state reliance easier than self-reliance, or rewarding short-term decisions over long-term

Our Government should be working towards equitable availability of choice (not equal - see below) to make sure those choices are as easy and available to everyone. Policies should be in place to make sure people are encouraged to make the right choices.

I increasingly feel like I make the right choices and think what was the bloody point!

I’m going to wish I never paid into my pension soon and went on holiday instead! Should I just spend my money, move into a smaller house and quit my job. At this point I think I’d be better off.

Jargon Buster - EQUALITY - It’s assumed there is a level playing field and everyone gets the same resources. EQUITY - Everyone gets what they need to succeed, which may mean different levels of support.

What does that look like for you? How can the government support you/me/ our children to save for retirement, buy a house and have children?

What do you want to see?

Just checked that if she were living in my local area she would only be getting £600 for a one bed property which would on open market be upwards of £900. So she would need to find the shortfall from her state pension leaving her with £700 for council tax, heating, food, clothing etc
I'm hoping she is in a less expensive area where the benefits cover the whole housing cost.

I just can’t see anything our government is doing will do anything other than perpetuate the ongoing problem.*

It won't, they aren't brave enough but the electorate don't want it.

You are absolutely right. The health issues that I specifically call out were not choices.

So what ones are ?

I've always wondered why I sometimes get a random reaction to something I posted months ago! That makes sense now.

is this true?

She pays £35 per week towards her rent! I pay for her internet, on a reduced social plan. She was in debt with her bills but I have sorted those out and set up DDs. And I do keep an eye on her spending. She is now able to live within her means, and doesn’t need assistance from me anymore. She gets pension credits, WFA and Attendance Allowance. Also she has her freedom pass.

Honestly not a clue. I have no experience and I think that must be an exceptionally difficult circumstance which is exactly what our welfare system was built for.

That said, I also don’t want our disabled community to be written off. I would hope they are given as much choice as is possible.

Ah, come on, it is not unreasonable to worry whether oneself will be okay. It's perfectly natural, and it doesn't stop us worrying about others as well.

It’s my prediction- we will find out in 40 years

What choices do you think the government should give to help those people?

The issue is that there seem to be more people who want to break and take from the system than there are people who want to build and contribute. The former don’t have anything to offer to society as they are and can’t or won’t be made to contribute so services become ever more stretched and decent people end up having to pay more. I don’t know what the answer is.

The fact that I’m overweight and drink too much is a choice.

OP - I do not see how being prudent and having the ability to save for retirement will possibly put anyone in a worse situaton that someone who does not save for retirement. Money buys choice if nothing else.

But I think I understand your point on barriers to equity/equality or simply improving one's circumstances. That however is a difficult thing to do as it can be so circumstantial.

For many women who find someone, settle down, have kids and reduce their work and then separate, they are undoubtedly shafted (and I don't think it is always easier for men but they usually have kept their careers going). Not true in all cases but an issue for many. For me, my choice to have children has left me financially worse off as has choosing a poor father for them who left us all in debt without a backward glance. But I would not be without them for the world even if I am looking at old age in poverty.

Edited - ooops wrong post I’d hope there were accessible schools and workplaces they could choose to go to.

Well, your opening post describes centre-right politics OP. You may not feel you align with a party but the 'aspiration' argument which is what you're making is really entrenched in right wing politics (I tempered it with 'centre' because it now seems we have an extreme right wing party in mainstream politics and I don't see any evidence you support them).

My view is that what you're talking about is the politics of envy. You assume that what you see in terms of "bad decisions being rewarded" is accurate in terms of a) people's living conditions and b) how human beings make decisions.

Unlike PP's comfortable mother up thread, my mother lives in social housing and it certainly is not luxury. Her choices are very limited in terms of her future and present life, eg she can't go on holiday, but expensive food, or decide where she lives. The support facilities in her building were removed during the last government. Has she made bad choices throughout her life? Yes. Was she at free liberty to make those choices, given socio-economic, mental health, social norms factors? Certainly not. Most of those choices were waiting for her like bear traps. Do I find her difficult? Yes. Not the point.

It's so very easy to praise yourself for your own decision making and look at other people's bad decisions and begrudge what they have especially when somebody is asking you to pay more for society as a whole. But it is ignorant - probably willfully- to the systems that in society which dictate your decision making and careless of the actual accuracy of the details of your argument. Simplified and wrong, basically.

"Should I just spend my money, move into a smaller house and quit my job. At this point I think I’d be better off."

How would you be better off now and in the longer term?

The resentment you feel now is that even by making the right sensible choices the life you expected as you age will not come to fruition.

Apart from disability I am all for a small state. I am someone who came from absolutely nothing to something by making good choices and relocating round the country for opportunity. My sisters made poor choices and had children as teenagers and did not bother to educate themselves further than GCSE level. One of them didn’t even take her exams. We all had the same poor and chaotic childhood. Two of their children also had children as teenagers, one became a grandmother at 34.

Tons of things. For example, once you have a couple kids in tow, if you’ve not previously trained into a position how on earth are you supposed to?
I think larger workplaces should have mandated social economic targets meaning they have to train a certain number of people into professional positions. I think public sector should be offering work placements that fit around having children.

You think everything is fair because YOU didn't face barriers. That's what you really mean whether you know it or not.

I grew up poor, both parents disabled young, one through a genetic condition the other a workplace injury. We grew up on benefits. Constantly broke and parents smoked which used a ridiculous amount of money even in the 80s. But sure what else did they have (they had 5 kids to think of something I don't agree with my last statement it's just what was said)

From 11 I worked from fruit farms then babysitting, local shops, kitchen porter and every penny went back into the house for the basics. Luckily I'm very very academically gifted and despite working until 10pm every night did really well at GCSE and A level and went to university for a good degree. I didn't do medicine despite wanting to and having the grades as I could never have afforded to not work awhile studying. I worked 20-30 hours a week at uni in call centres, studied until 1/2am and got a first.

My children have a very privileged upbringing. They won't have to do all that and will have the choice of any career academic or otherwise. They won't have to figure out the housing market, credit cards, savings accounts etc because I taught myself and willt each them

However I constantly see people in professions less suited to the role than people I know who grew up poor but lacked educational advantages and now work in lower paid civil service type jobs etc where they've done well but not had the extra push that more well off people have had to reach their full potential.

We're 90% luck. Where your born and how much your parents earn can make it break your future. Inherent academic ability will dictate how much you can overcome bad circumstances so there will always be those who prosper from poor backgrounds, those who screw up from well off background but the middle of the bell curve will have vastly different outcomes based on diet as a kid, emotional care as a kid, availability of time to learn rather than having to work or acts a carer as a kid.

The idea our choices impact 90% of our lives is only ever believed by those who have been blessed either financially or academically or both.

It's lovely for you @Phonicshaskilledmeoff that you have had a life with the power and agency to make all the good choices. Well done you.

Governments have to live in the real world and deal with systems that have been running for decades already and with people who have been living with those existing systems for decades. Maybe you can theorise a perfectly integrated system that creates all the nudges towards self sufficiency of which you speak, but you still have to account for the people who are in difficult circumstances right now who got there through decades of disempowered and inequitable systems and have not had a chance to avoid those circumstances. You also have to consider the rights of the children born into families where the adults haven't benefited from the empowerment and equity thatmight enable them to make good decisions, knowing that for children the benefits of being with imperfect and flawed parents who sometimes make terrible decisions but who love their kids absolutely can sometimes far outweight the alternate benefits of being looked after with plenty of excellent decisions for their health and education but without the love of their family. You therefore cannot just decide not to provide support even to those whose circumstances might have been avoided if they'd made different choices.

Certainly different solutions have been tried over the years. The workhouse system was very much in line with your mindset - the absolute fallback for what would happen if you couldn't fend for yourself was quite deliberately made to be something to be feared and avoided at all costs, so that anyone who possibly could avoid it did so by whatever means necessary. The cost of that in human suffering is not something that most of us fortunately are able to comprehend. It is not and cannot ever be humane to say to anyone "well your current predicament is due to your own bad choices therefore we will not help you, it's your own problem" and in most cases the reality is that the spiral of bad choices began with that person's parents, not themselves, and they themselves had little power to change paths.

If you could start with a blank slate and ensure your policies start being enacted from around about when humans started being more sentient than their animal forebears and having hierarchical social systems so that everyone grew up with them already in place, then I am sure you'd be quite right.

@amibeingaknob the way it's going it's inevitable as the demographics no longer support the Ponzi model.

What do economic experts, like actual academics say we need to do?

I am all for everyone having different views etc but I cannot comprehend someone looking at someone who is on benefits and being jealous. It's not just the money it's how you I assume are treated as someone on benefits or disabled, how you are marginalised, the impact on your self esteem , the doors that are closed to you. Why would you want that?

Tons of things. For example, once you have a couple kids in tow, if you’ve not previously trained into a position how on earth are you supposed to?

I'm confused now, if you are talking about choices then surely having dc before you are trained is a choice?