Foodbanks: A sign of the times?

[TommyV]

A mobile phone is a luxury product. It isn't something you need, it's something you want.

Disagree.

If they've children as an easy example, you'd like to think they have immediate contact with their parents whenever required whether it be via a school ringing them or any other easy example. In this case a phone is needed.

 

[krooton]

Is there any actual evidence that Food Banks are swarmed with iPhone users? I wonder how many people here actually have any experience of poverty...

Real poverty, or the bullcrap 'relative poverty' they tout in this country?

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Is there any actual evidence that Food Banks are swarmed with iPhone users? I wonder how many people here actually have any experience of poverty...

Did you not know all benefit claimants have 360's, iPhones and 62" plasma tv's with Sky HD and smoke and drink all day? Well, that's what the Daily Mail keeps telling me anyway

Being on benefits is absolutely not a totally ****, hard, demoralising and soul destroying experience

I do wonder why so many posters on here don't give it a shot if it's so cosy

Real poverty, or the bullcrap 'relative poverty' they tout in this country?

So, are you saying only those who are starving, malnourished and are experiencing a serious threat to healy and actual mortality are deserving of any kind of social assistance?

How very Victorian of you. Are you familiar with the concept of the undeserving poor? Bet you'd like to see poor houses makes a come back, wouldn't you sir

 

[Arnie]

I wonder how many people here actually leave the house.

Fixed.

 

[SpeedFreak]

I think the point Fox is making is valid. In times gone your phone would have been one landline at £10 per month. Now that same struggling family has 3-4 hansets that cost hundreds up front and £10 each per month at minimum. Foodbanks are ok in principle but imo benefits should cover these necessities and food stamps rather than cash the currency.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

I think the point Fox is making is valid. In times gone your phone would have been one landline at £10 per month.

Can you even get a landline for £10?

Now that same struggling family has 3-4 hansets that cost hundreds up front and £10 each per month at minimum.

Do they, do they really? They don't generally have one handset for the family where the handset is free with £10 of payg credit then?

Foodbanks are ok in principle but imo benefits should cover these necessities and food stamps rather than cash the currency.

You do realise foodbanks are charities don't you? It doesn't cost the tax payer squat.

 

[SpeedFreak]

Can you even get a landline for £10?



Do they, do they really? They don't generally have one handset for the family where the handset is free with £10 of payg credit then?



You do realise foodbanks are charities don't you? It doesn't cost the tax payer squat.

My bad, a landline is £10.75 from BT....

From experience they have multiple phones but of course this is just the cases I know of.

I am aware that food banks are charities but in reality should not be required if the benefits system worked as intended.

 

[Kutter]

what happened to food vouchers? i remember McD's used to take them back in the late 80's when i worked there. Did they stop them in favour of something else?

 

[kwerk]

God I hate the guardian.

It's the daily mail for smug liberals.

 

[SpeedFreak]

what happened to food vouchers? i remember McD's used to take them back in the late 80's when i worked there. Did they stop them in favour of something else?

Some would argue that this is a perfect case against food vouchers

 

[krooton]

So, are you saying only those who are starving, malnourished and are experiencing a serious threat to healy and actual mortality are deserving of any kind of social assistance?

Nope, I'm saying that I believe that poverty figures are span in a way to make it seem far more widespread than it really is, and I mean instances such as this thread refers to when people struggle to afford food.

There are plenty of people who are getting all their core needs met, but lumped under 'poverty' because relative poverty makes them statistically so.

 

[arknor]

A mobile phone is a luxury product. It isn't something you need, it's something you want.

Regardless, the majority of people have expensive smartphones on high value contracts, not £10 Nokia's using £10 of credit a year.

An iPhone4 on Contract is what, £800ish over 2 years?

citation needed cos only a few people i know have high end phones and they are the younger generation who do it to show off.

also if you have kids a mobile phone is pretty much a must so the school can get hold of you easily if anything happens

 

[Things change I've changed]

what happened to food vouchers? i remember McD's used to take them back in the late 80's when i worked there. Did they stop them in favour of something else?

Economically speaking are food vouchers a good idea?

 

[SpeedFreak]

citation needed cos only a few people i know have high end phones and they are the younger generation who do it to show off

I wasn't talking high end phones, even a basic enough hand set is £30 which is not really necessary if you have a landline and we are talking necessities here. As for citations, I can think of two examples within my own extended family where this is the case. In one, a parent has an iPhone 4, one child has an iPhone 4s. Neither parent works but this is purely anecdotal.

 

[Hatter The Mad]

The petty economies of the rich are just as amazing as the silly extravagances of the poor

(William Feather)

 

[wildman]

god forbid someone should have a phone... its hardly a luxury these days

Nokia 3310 should suffice for someone that needs a mobile phone to make phone calls and text. Anything more is superfluous and the additional money spent on the phone could be used to feed their kids ?

I think thats the point Coals is trying to make.................

 

[SpeedFreak]

citation needed cos only a few people i know have high end phones and they are the younger generation who do it to show off.

also if you have kids a mobile phone is pretty much a must so the school can get hold of you easily if anything happens

How did we ever manage without this immediate contact? At a guess the unemployed parents would be at home anyhow.

 

[marmalade]

I wonder how many people who visit a food bank smoke, drink, watch sky and have a mobile phone?

Precisely
They are for the people who could not manage if they had another £50 a week - for people who are incapable of self discipline in their spending patterns.
Or people between/waiting for benefits

 

[Firestar_3x]

Precisely
They are for the people who could not manage if they had another £50 a week - for people who are incapable of self discipline in their spending patterns.
Or people between/waiting for benefits

The problem is some people can't differentiate between necessity and luxury, food & water are a necessity, mobile phone / internet / sky / tv licence / car / motorbike / designer clothes etc etc are all luxury items.

 

[kwerk]

Poor people seem to care the most about stuff like phones, because that's the only way they can show off. They can't afford a nice house or brand new cars or holidays to Belize, the way middle class people show off. So they show off with phones, big TVs, "designer" clothes, and stuff like that.

Can't really blame them, everyone wants to show off one way or another.

So it's easy to say "just give up your phone, sky, etc" as a middle class person because you could do that and still have your house, holidays, and everything, but they would have nothing at all left.

Not saying they are entitled to those things of course, just showing the other side of the coin.