If there is one thing that a government is good at then it’s diversion, in fact that may be the only thing that some of them have mastered. Much has been made recently of welfare scroungers in the UK and rightly so as they seem to be the only thing that we produce!
What I find interesting though is the way that politicians use this debate. They don’t jump on the evils of wage dodgers, that would be too simple after all. They quietly agree that having generations and entire communities that no longer understand the concept of employment is wrong but that is it. Of course they can’t jump on the bandwagon too much because it is them that created welfare dependence, tax payers weren’t queueing up to offer their hard earned to those that chose not to work after all.
What the politicians have done is to generate a new class, dependent on welfare but oblivious to the fact. These people work and so they enjoy the privilege of looking down upon the Jeremy Kyle audiences and pyjama clad shoppers. But they enjoy this privilege through delusion and a perspective shift. These people are like the children that went to school and we’re too dumb to do maths but got gold stars and praise for colouring in the question! The state rewards them for leaving the house by creating a social class for them. This act of smoke and mirrors distorts the real picture and allows the state to divert attention from problems that they are not brave enough to tackle.
I am no economist but I know that this country (UK) borrows massively more than it ‘earns’ every year a significant proportion of this is spent on welfare. Don’t let the politicians confuse you the definition of employment has not changed it is a person who is rewarded for the provision of labour by an employer. The state can be an employer and in the past this was considered an easy way of reducing the unemployment queue. When you are employed you pay tax, your income is derived solely from your own means, be that employment or investment, and you purchase goods and services at face value. The words ‘tax’ and ‘credit’ should not exist in the same sentence, together they form an oxymoron.
If you work and the state returns money to you in the form of tax credits, allowances and discounted services then you are not an effective employee. Since you are not making a positive contribution to the tax take you are, to all intents and purposes, a state employee. Because your welfare has a different name or you spend 20 hours a week playing at work does not make you an employee. Don’t think for one minute that child care is excluded from this, if the state pays for your childcare then you are engaged in their ponzi scheme. If you have children then the cost of their childcare has to come from your wages or you employment is pointless, like writing lines at school it serves simply to fill time.
Look at your pay slip and the amount of tax that the state takes, employment only works if you don’t get that back. If you pay £80 in tax but claim £100 in housing and £70 in childcare then your wasting your time, go watch Jeremy Kyle and let’s get someone working that can afford to live on the wage. I know this is a rant but it is so frustrating watching the state sponsor made up jobs and encouraging people to believe that they are real. That kid that was no good at maths, guess what he still isn’t despite all the gold stars for colouring in!
I have to share a new definition of camouflage with you, spotted on the train this morning. A young man with bright ginger hair had clearly thought long and hard before having “13” tattooed on his neck because he chose a colour that was easy to hide, red. You see, no matter what you think, some people are born to watch Jeremy Kyle.