Do you believe that there should be any situation where an able bodied person can equal the working lifestyle via state benefits?
30/11 Strikes.
- Thread starter wordy
- Start date
Do you believe that there should be any situation where an able bodied person can equal the working lifestyle via state benefits?
Well, I'm not in the union anyway, so wouldn't have been able to strike even I wanted to.
Deleted member 66701
Deleted member 66701
You wish you were one. Go on admit it.
I wish I was one instead of having to go out on strike to protect my pension.
Quite frankly some of the attitudes in this thread from both sides of the argument are ridiculous (and extreme).
Obviously it's an issue people feel strongly about but branding those that feel they need to take industrial action for a better deal as 'scum' and assuming all those against the stike are rich tory supporting bankers is just wrong.
I think I'm a pragmatic person. I work in the public sector and pay into my gilt edged pension. I didn't vote Tory but I'm starting to wonder whether I am a closet Conservative because I've largely been impressed by Cameron and agree with the government's approach on a lot of issues - although I still think that they get a lot wrong but every govenment does. I am a union member and believe that it is perfectly reasonable to take industrial action to protect my position. Danny Alexander is still a rodent.
My pension fund is 96% funded and had the government turned round and said "Hello everybody. We need to up everyone's contributions to make up the 4% shortfall, we'll reassess it on an annual basis depending on how the scheme is performing but your pension won't be affected otherwise, is that okay?" people would not be out on strike.
Everyone I have spoken to accepts that change is required to the scheme and is receptive to change but the government is trying to claw back to the break even point and then go a bit further to make some money.
IMO everything that's happening now is part of the negotiation process regardless of whether the parties are saying no negotiations are taking place.
If I was in government I would not have put my best offer on the table straight away - they didn't, they came back with an adjusted offer and imo they're still asking for more than is required. At this point we can only accept what we believe to be an unfair offer or take industrial action in the hope that an improved offer is made. That is not blackmail as some people have said. The government does not have to make another offer and the industrial action cannot go on indefinitely.
The fact that public sector pensions should be cut back because those in the private sector do not have access to the same schemes doesn't make sense. If anything workers in the private sector should have been pressuring their employers for a better deal before the current economic crisis kicked off.
I thought the point was that at this stage they are cutting planned increases in spending, so if Labour were still in power then the spending would be even higher.
Deleted member 66701
Deleted member 66701
I'm impressed you made it across the picket line with all their harassment, bullying, violence and intimidation.
I bet your life is hell today isn't it wit the bullying of your peers and colleagues - bet the TU reps haven't stopped victimising you since you've been in.
Ah you didn't read it.
The government's business is to provide opportunities for self-improvement, not to hold people's hands.
Last time I checked they were spending more even than Labour promised to do. Amazing though that may seem when we are bombarded with stories on the BBC and in the Guardian every day about 'savage' cuts.
The left rely on people like Amigafan not bothering to think or to check the actual facts, but to just lap up their BS lies and make George Osborne into a hate figure because it is so much more comforting.
Working lifestyle at what wage?.
I do think people should always be better off working (assuming able bodied), but that wages are too low at the bottom (which can cause a conflict).
Much as the unions confuse a cancellation of above inflation budget increases with cuts?
But does that count for both sides?
Have the Unions budged? Have the government budged?
The problem is wages can't rise in a global market without increasing unemployment at the bottom of the market (as seen with the youth unemployment problem associated with the minimum wage).
That's why I support a taxation and benefit system based around NIT.
It's difficult to increase wages at the bottom, because as soon as you do, prices will rise to match them. See: Cost of renting a house compared to housing benefit, childcare costs compared to amounts recoverable as tax credits, etc.
Once they do this I'd agree on the not holding hands part.
But I'd add either the word/s "equal" or "high quality" in that line somewhere.
And this is exactly why the minimum wage has not helped low paid workers at all, quite the opposite. And nor has having uncapped housing benefit which the Tories are making some moves to tackle, although to predictable squeals from the left who think that capping benefits to £25k tax free a year (equivalent to a c.£35k job) is somehow evil and people can't survive on that.
BTW the BBC had an article yesterday seriously asking if it was possible to live comfortably on £40k a year.
People aren't equal so they shouldn't achieve equal things.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15977813
Because it's fine to say that about bankers and "the rich" but obviously not to about poor "working class" citizens..
Personally it shows just what hypocrity union leaders really are..
Because it's fine to say that about bankers and "the rich" but obviously not to about poor "working class" citizens..
Personally it shows just what hypocrity union leaders really are..
I agree, it's not easy.
You also need to take into account the money saved by encouraging people to work, the greater tax receipt due to a larger portion of the population being economically active & the increased amount of jobs created to meet this new demand.
The simple fact is that it's not that wise to have such a large portion of the population to be economically inactive, or totally reliant on debt for purchases, wage recession effects business just as much as it effects workers.
I'd say it very much depends on what you expect from life. I earn £30k, my wife earns £10k. With a mortgage and two kids, it's pretty tight. We give a lot of money to charity, which I know most people don't, so that would free us up a lot if we didn't, but even then, I'd say our lifestyles are considerably more conservative than what a lot of people would want. We barely ever go out, for example, don't buy many new clothes, etc...