Quote:
Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington
Eric, I don't blame the poor for being poor, but I do blame those who are workshy for being so....but to be honest it isn't all their fault. It is the fault of a benefits culture.....and despite you declaring it to be BS, it does exist...if it didn't then why would you have three generations of a family(and there are many of these) who have not worked?? Have no intention of working, but will happily take whatever the state gives out and then cry poverty.
If there was no benefits culture then these people would be in work, contributing their taxes rather than taking.
Handouts do not work...they just foster dependence.
Some responsibility has to be placed on people to sort themselves out. It seems that everyone want the government to do it all for them...this infantilizes the population.
It really comes to something when i can see families on benefits who are better off than me.....who has worked all of my life.....contributed, and am still contributing(mainly because a Labour Chancellor doubled my tax contribution).
I do not begrudge giving a helping hand to those in need, but why should I have to be a crutch for their lifetime, to keep them in a lifestyle that I cannot achieve?
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I know where you are coming from hon ... same generation as me ... I think that we have a stronger sense of fair play, or, maybe of what is right and what isn't. And a strong work ethic, any work: "Where there's muck, there's brass" eh. But ... there's always a "but" isn't there
... I don't see much of a culture of welfare abuse. And if this is going on for several generations, I don't see any benefit for blaming the kids born into welfare. The answer is simple, and unfortunately therein lies it's complexity. The jobs are gone. Not the hamburger flipping opportunities, but the well-paid industrial jobs ... Britain's manufacturing sector has shrunk more than that of any other developed country. When 30% of the economy is crammed into one square mile, something is wrong. Look at Germany (preferably thru the bombsights of a Lancaster, great plane, designed and built in Britain, by Brits) .... they are doing so well 'cause they still make stuff ... Nips (those wonderful folks who brought us Pearl Harbor) ... they make stuff too, damned fine stuff. Don't see them shipping off jobs to the Third World in order to boost profits.
Anyway ... what pees me off is that a bunch of welfare cheats are taking all the flack, and the real assholes, the one's in suits, are getting off almost scot free. Ok, the odd Bernie Madoff goes to the joint, and Conrad Black (ex-Canadian, you guys made him a Lord
) does a little time ... but in general, the corporate welfare bums get away with it.
Ah well, "Mother of 27 uses welfare to buy a Mercedes" (fine car, made in Germany) makes great headlines, and diverts attention from the real freeloaders and their political buddies in London ... or Washington ... or Ottawa for that matter. The western economies are in deep doo doo ... and it sure as hell aint a bunch of welfare cheats who are responsible for the whole mess.