Quote:
Originally Posted by smoothmoniker
What a luxury, to be so burdened with free time and opinions that we can waste them on an internet feud. This must be what they call a "rich people" problem.
So, about feeding the poor ...
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Well...I wasn't engaged in a feud. I was engaged in an argument. An Off Topic argument granted :P
Over in the Uk, our new coalition gobmint is busy dismantling the welfare state as fast as (questionably-)humanly possible. At a time when more and more people are losing their jobs and fewer and fewer new jobs are being created, the mechanisms of assistance are being rapidly curtailed. What assistance remains is being partnered up with a requirement for 'community service' and for accepting any job offered no matter what.
This is likely in my opinion, and based on what happened during the late 80s/early 90s, to have a dual effect. Firstly, much of what is being tagged as 'community service' is in fact work that is currently being done by various groups of employees from both the public and private sector. So rather than people being paid a living wage to clean up flytipping, or deliver meals-on-wheels to the housebound elderly, at least some of the time this will be done by people who are not being paid a living wage. They end up less economically active than the full-time worker who could be doing that work. At the same time budget strained councils and public organisations will be able to manage with fewer paid workers in some areas.
They're probably apocryphal, but I recall stories from the 90s of council workers being laid off then after a year of being unable to find work being sent to do some kind of unpaid 'work scheme' with the private firm that had taken over the refuse collections. Essentially doing the same job but for benefits instead of an hourly wage.
The other thing that will happen, I suspect, is that given the emphasis on timescales and the kinds of pressure applied both in terms of having to take any job whatever the score, and in terms of being highly unlikely to be able to succesfully reclaim should that job go wrong: the amount of basic leverage for employees and prospective employees will fall to an all time low. The minimum wage is apparently being reduced, so this will speed the process: this part of the plan will drive wages down.
What we are heading towards is what seems to be have already happened in the States: the re-appearance of large sectors of working poor. Where a family can have two adults in work, one of them with two jobs and still can't quite cover food, healthcare and rent.
[eta] For the record: i disapprove :P