Prejudice is everywhere, all around us. We do it all day and everyday often without realising and other times we simply don't want to admit we're doing it. Generally there are two main groups of those that are victim to this, one being those that are considered within society to be different be it homosexual, of an ethical minority, tattooed, a young parent, an old parent etc it goes on and one and then there are those who rather than different are merely the unfortunate, victim to circumstance. The different can fight back, the unfortunate are expected to lie down and take it.
When your so-called educated opinions are based on sensationalism and manipulation of perspective from the media, they become invalid. You're merely regurgitating what they want you to think and believe.
Be it on teenage mothers or extended breastfeeders, the media will manipulate it into a televisual feast of sensationalism focusing on the extremes because the normality simply isn't as interesting, shocking or obscene.
Then there is the current tirade against benefit claimants, they're all scroungers and workshy. It must be true, the government and the media say so. Obviously. There's you working everyday to pay these layabouts for doing nothing. Did you know that only 3% of the entire welfare budget it spent on Job Seekers Allowance? Oh and only 0.7% of the entire welfare budget is claimed fraudulantly. Yes, really. Puts it into perspective a little more, no?
Households with out of work claiming parents just breed more people that will never be in work and live off the state. The government told us this so it must be true, in-fact the Daily Mail probably said it too an they never lie. Generations after generations of unemployed people.
"Reality: The academics Paul Gregg and Lindsay MacMillan looked at the Labour Force Survey, the large-scale survey of households from which we get most of our statistics about who’s in work. In households with two or more generations of working age, there were only 0.3 per cent where neither generation had ever worked. In a third of these, the member of the younger generation had been out of work for less than a year.
When they looked at longer-term data, they found that only 1 per cent of sons in the families they tracked had never worked by the time they were 29. What’s more, while sons whose fathers had experienced unemployment were more likely to be unemployed, this only applied where there were few jobs in the local labour market. So ‘inter-generational worklessness’ is much more likely to be explained by a lack of jobs than a lack of a ‘work ethic’. " - (http://www.redpepper.org.uk/mythbuster-welfare-reform/)
Households with out of work claiming parents just breed more people that will never be in work and live off the state. The government told us this so it must be true, in-fact the Daily Mail probably said it too an they never lie. Generations after generations of unemployed people.
"Reality: The academics Paul Gregg and Lindsay MacMillan looked at the Labour Force Survey, the large-scale survey of households from which we get most of our statistics about who’s in work. In households with two or more generations of working age, there were only 0.3 per cent where neither generation had ever worked. In a third of these, the member of the younger generation had been out of work for less than a year.
When they looked at longer-term data, they found that only 1 per cent of sons in the families they tracked had never worked by the time they were 29. What’s more, while sons whose fathers had experienced unemployment were more likely to be unemployed, this only applied where there were few jobs in the local labour market. So ‘inter-generational worklessness’ is much more likely to be explained by a lack of jobs than a lack of a ‘work ethic’. " - (http://www.redpepper.org.uk/mythbuster-welfare-reform/)
There's plenty of jobs out there if you really want one. You're just not looking hard enough because they don't really want one. Beggers can't be choosers, get off your lardy arses and get a minimum wage job and pay your own way. Really? when was the last time you were long term unemployed? Once upon a time you could walk into your local pub, shop or factory with a 'give us a job?' and they would. You could walk onto any building site and get work starting the next day. In case you haven't realised, we're in a recession, scrap that, we're in a depression. We're talking about several hundred people all applying for the same minimum wage factory job or cleaning job. Many of which got laid off this year or last year thus trumping the people who have been out of work longer. Jobseekers apply for reams and reams of jobs every day of every week becoming further devoured by hopelessness at the bleak outlook as companies don't even bother to send out 'sorry but no' letters any more. You're just left, hanging. The simple truth out there is, there is not enough jobs. Is it really so hard to grasp that concept? Add to this the abhorrent workfare and zero hours contracts, companies no longer need pay people to work when they can get a stream of workfare candidates there instead for free and on top of that receive a bunch of money from the government for doing this. Generally there are no jobs given to these people (these people who have to participate or face sanctions, doing the same work other people get at least minimum wage for to keep their £74 a week job seekers allowance which works out at working for £2 an hour, with no paid job at the end of it. It's absolute exploitation. A disgusting affair.
Yet living on benefits is easy, there's no incentive to get off them. You get money for doing nothing. You work full time whilst they sit around watching Jezza Kyle on their flat screen plasma tv's paid for by you, or the 0.00000whatever% of your actual taxes that actually do go towards JSA as you raise an eyebrow at their can of Stella an pack of fags because they're supposed to be desperate and surely i they can afford to smoke they're obviously getting too much benefit money. Oh and how very dare they buy their kids Christmas presents when they have no job! Never mind that the TV is actually on tick and they'll be paying quadruple it's worth in interest until they're ninety years old and Christmas is most likely paid for by a doorstep loan shark that again they'll be repaying double or quadruple the amount they borrowed just in interest. Is it any wonder they have a fag or a drink? really? Do you really begrudge them that? It's not to exploit the fact they're on benefits, it's to try and help cope with the fact they're surviving..barely. They're existing not living. When you're at the bottom you have no choices. When you've cut back on nearly everything you possibly can, there's nothing else to cut back. It's hard, it's dark, it's bleak and you cope with this by attempting to numb yourself with the odd drink.
Your clothes are second hand, Ditto with the majority of your furniture, which by the way is falling apart. Your bed is so knackered you wake up in pain and your oven door has no handle. You haven't had a holiday in years. You can't afford one car let alone downsize just to one. You're obviously doing everything wrong because you don't have a plasma screen tv, yours is third hand and old style....so old that half the graphics on adverts etc aren't seen on the screen. You weigh up what's more important, turning the heating on to keep your kids warm or buying value bananas and apples to try and keep them healthy. You've sold everything of any worth you've ever owned including new clothes just so you can buy food and pay for school trips. You can't move to a less desirable area and less fancy house to save money because you're already on a council estate where you want to barricade the doors and windows every night.
If life on benefits is so easy, do it. I double dare you. Stop complaining about how easy they have it and join them. Jack in your job and sign on. I'm not talking about a quaint little experiment here with the promise of your own real life back afterwards, I mean long term. It's not a case of tightening your belt, here you have no belt because that would be a luxury.
Fear, hopelessness, worthlessness, depression, anxiety and £74 JSA a week to live on.
But these people have never worked a day in their life! Bollocks. Are you really so naive to believe that? Many people worked full time straight from school and well into adulthood before finding themselves unemployed due to recession or health. Whilst you were at University (by the way even if Mum & Dad paid tuition fee's what they pay is only a fraction of what it costs, the rest is actually subsidised by the government) many of these cretinous scroungers were working full time thus helping to fund you with their taxes. Not to mention that just like you the unemployed pay taxes on everything they buy, so are putting back into the pot. The same pot they're entitled to also withdraw from should they need it.
Do you get child benefit? The key is in the name...benefit. I.e you're technically a benefit claimant too.
Many claimants of council tax benefit and housing benefit, are actually in work.
It must be incredibly comfortable up there, judging those below. You think you have it hard?
The majority of people on JSA want to work just like the majority of young mums are good mums and the majority of extended breasteeders aren't weirdos.
Yet living on benefits is easy, there's no incentive to get off them. You get money for doing nothing. You work full time whilst they sit around watching Jezza Kyle on their flat screen plasma tv's paid for by you, or the 0.00000whatever% of your actual taxes that actually do go towards JSA as you raise an eyebrow at their can of Stella an pack of fags because they're supposed to be desperate and surely i they can afford to smoke they're obviously getting too much benefit money. Oh and how very dare they buy their kids Christmas presents when they have no job! Never mind that the TV is actually on tick and they'll be paying quadruple it's worth in interest until they're ninety years old and Christmas is most likely paid for by a doorstep loan shark that again they'll be repaying double or quadruple the amount they borrowed just in interest. Is it any wonder they have a fag or a drink? really? Do you really begrudge them that? It's not to exploit the fact they're on benefits, it's to try and help cope with the fact they're surviving..barely. They're existing not living. When you're at the bottom you have no choices. When you've cut back on nearly everything you possibly can, there's nothing else to cut back. It's hard, it's dark, it's bleak and you cope with this by attempting to numb yourself with the odd drink.
Your clothes are second hand, Ditto with the majority of your furniture, which by the way is falling apart. Your bed is so knackered you wake up in pain and your oven door has no handle. You haven't had a holiday in years. You can't afford one car let alone downsize just to one. You're obviously doing everything wrong because you don't have a plasma screen tv, yours is third hand and old style....so old that half the graphics on adverts etc aren't seen on the screen. You weigh up what's more important, turning the heating on to keep your kids warm or buying value bananas and apples to try and keep them healthy. You've sold everything of any worth you've ever owned including new clothes just so you can buy food and pay for school trips. You can't move to a less desirable area and less fancy house to save money because you're already on a council estate where you want to barricade the doors and windows every night.
If life on benefits is so easy, do it. I double dare you. Stop complaining about how easy they have it and join them. Jack in your job and sign on. I'm not talking about a quaint little experiment here with the promise of your own real life back afterwards, I mean long term. It's not a case of tightening your belt, here you have no belt because that would be a luxury.
Fear, hopelessness, worthlessness, depression, anxiety and £74 JSA a week to live on.
But these people have never worked a day in their life! Bollocks. Are you really so naive to believe that? Many people worked full time straight from school and well into adulthood before finding themselves unemployed due to recession or health. Whilst you were at University (by the way even if Mum & Dad paid tuition fee's what they pay is only a fraction of what it costs, the rest is actually subsidised by the government) many of these cretinous scroungers were working full time thus helping to fund you with their taxes. Not to mention that just like you the unemployed pay taxes on everything they buy, so are putting back into the pot. The same pot they're entitled to also withdraw from should they need it.
Do you get child benefit? The key is in the name...benefit. I.e you're technically a benefit claimant too.
Many claimants of council tax benefit and housing benefit, are actually in work.
It must be incredibly comfortable up there, judging those below. You think you have it hard?
The majority of people on JSA want to work just like the majority of young mums are good mums and the majority of extended breasteeders aren't weirdos.
The somewhat inane ramblings of a semi-crunchy 30-something stay at home mum based in the NW of the UK. Mum of Thing One (10yrs), Thing Two (8yrs) and The Dude (5yrs) & Moomin (Born Aug 2014). Wife of the long suffering Husband.
In search of the meaning of life, sanity and Gin.
Breastfeeding | Co-sleeping | Babywearing | Mental Health | M.E | Left-wing
Excellent post, tweeting the link as so many more people need to see this. I gave birth at the age of 15, a month before my 16th birthday. My son is now 7 and I am 23, I work from home but just because I don't have a uniform, all the school mums and even strangers I pass on a regular basis presume I am on benefits and lazy. Too many people are judgemental, I have been on benefits and its no easy ride, I do sometimes wonder myself how some of my friends on benefits afford such luxuries they have, but like you mentioned they pay over the top via catalogs, loans and repayment stores.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much better off now I work from home, but I enjoy what I do and luckily don't have to pay out for childcare cost etc. I am very grateful for the benefit system we have, as no one ever knows what is around the corner, and with a child in tow if I was to lose my job overnight, I'd need some source of money to make sure my child is fed, to make sure he's warm, to make sure he's clothed and every other essential in life. I often wonder, with all the people insulting people on benefits, with the way the climate is going, if these people were to lose their jobs, would they change their minds when they go onto JSA or another benefit?