Is this really what people want?

[mcmooncup]

I don't post much on the threads about benefits but here goes......I'm going to start.

I have a company that works in the Work Programme with long-term unemployed people. Over the last few weeks / month I have seen a dramatic shift in the provision of benefits.

Many many many many more people are being sanctioned (i.e. their benefits are being taken away from them) for missing an appointment, calling in sick for an appointment or not filling in forms correctly.

If you make a mistake with ANY of these 'obligations' under the Jobseekers allowance contract, you, from Monday, can have your benefits taken away for 3 months for the first offence, 6 months for the second and 3 years for the third.

So, I can recount a few stories for you:
Severely dyslexic man provides his job log sheet to the jobcentre and has filled out as much as he can. The jobcentre is not happy with this and sanctions him, probably for 3 months. His response....."I'm going to go homeless, I can't stand this anymore"

Man goes to an interview for a job instead of turning up for an appointment with his WP provider, called in to tell them this. Sanctioned for 2 weeks for not turning up for the appointment. Message was never passed on, and despite phone records showing he called, he was still sanctioned.

Man sanctioned for 6 months for missing an appointment because he was poorly. He is a single parent. He is thinking of suicide.

Is this really what people want?

Homelessness? Suicide?

Do people really think it motivates people to get a job? Because to believe that you have to believe that people like being on benefits, I guess?

What am I missing?

'Why would anyone want that, Craig?'

Why would a noble want to rule over serfs? They think that we are "plebs", that they are born to rule, that they are a superior elite.

Of course they know it is not true, because capitalism has shown it to them, when they have seen working class children earn greater riches than them. That's why they don't like capitalism.

In a serf/slavery Soviet system, they made sure that everybody earn a pittance, drove a crap car if they were very lucky and queued round the block for a slice of bacon, while they rode around in expensive cars in special lanes on the way to their publicly paid for dachas.

How could they get away with that under capitalism?: Capitalism is a meritocracy and they had to get out of the kitchen because they couldn't stand the heat.

Sorry, couldn't reply I am busy trying to extricate myself from all this string

Really sorry I keep calling you Craig .

That's OK, as long as you don't call me Clegg!

right, cut lose now.

So this all boils down to some Thomas Malthus nonsense of years gone and some sort of elite pulling the strings of the Americans. Ri........ght, ok. So what the hell was going on in the 60's and 70's with the communist witch hunt in the states. Are the elite also masochists.

Claig is confused and incoherent.

Surely if this elite was putting together greater unity in europe, trade relations btw America and europe, setting up (whispers Bildeburg) why didn't they jump right in and join China and Russia, they must have known that Trotsky????? liked to ride in big cars and he had found the means to keep everyone pushing handcarts.

The elite are very small in number and they can't keep the people down forever.

These are very good questions. While I have 99% of the answers, I have to admit that the final 1% eludes me.

You have to read George Orwell's 1984 to gain a better understanding. There were 3 blocs in that book that were played off against each other in order to control the public, but they were just actors on a stage, each one who played their part.

Is that a joke.....that 1% is the same as the 1% who through capitalist exploitation and accumulation are picking the pockets of all workers and condemning half the planet to near starvation & debt. Noticed how all states are now indebted. From small african states growing coffee to the largest western states like the USA. So who picked our pockets? not just yours and mine but riffled through the treasury. When the money is gone, nation states could fall.....what then.

These nobles seem quite clever non? or is it Merkel, I knew she was up to no good but who's pulling her strings........greenpeace.....surely not.

It makes me laugh to think of bankers, owners of multnationals, politicians as nobles. Nobs, knobs maybe, or gnobs even, but nobles???

Fast forward three centuries, please!

'So who picked our pockets?'
The bankers.

'These nobles seem quite clever non?'
If you mean they know how to run a good Punch and Judy Show, then yes.

'It makes me laugh to think of bankers, owners of multnationals, politicians as nobles.'

They are not the nobles, they are the actors on the stage and each plays many parts.

I suppose it was simpler back in the day. At least you knew who your enemies were.

'It makes me laugh'

I can assure you that this is no laughing matter!

Someone, according to you, is laughing very heartily indeed at our expense.

hang on, the banks are picking the pockets of us, them and the state, wow, why? because surely someone is pulling their strings. Or are the bankers the elite string pullers? surely the puppeteer wouldn't allow Morgan Stanley to get in the way of a good game of chess.

'I suppose it was simpler back in the day.'

Have you not seen the Borgias on TV? It was a damned sight more complex then.

No Mini, keep up. The bankers are the actors on the stage.

But who is the director??

'why?'

because we are back to zero and low growth and austerity which is what the puppeteers want.

So we've got puppeteers, chess players, pick pockets and poisoners. Feels like we're getting close to a Poirot moment.

'No Mini, keep up. The bankers are the actors on the stage.'

Correct, and this is only scene 1.

It happened in the library and i think it was Colonel Mustard.