Monday, January 05, 2009

The Feckless Unemployed



I've just spent ten minutes typing out a response to question someone asked me underneath an earlier post and, f*** it, that makes it long enough to be a post of its own...


Anon - 05 January 2009 13:00

Stef, what do you make of this statement? (something I hear quite a lot in certain social circles):

Although it is true, there was a whole program on BBC dedicated to it. I said that we don't do the jobs on average as well as they do. That's not opinion, that's fact. There are plenty of stats flying around about workforce productivity in the labour market comparative to earlier years. A trip to Google might suffice.

The jobs will likely be filled at one point or another, although I wouldn't expect it to be the kind of speed at which they were taken a year ago. The sad truth is that a British citizen can quite effortlessly gain 15k a year through benefits, so why earn 11k at subway and have to work for it? Unemployment has far too many benefits, no pun intended.

As for those who are employed, take builders for example... It's pretty common knowledge that if you want an excellent individual job done you don't employ British labour. It's par to say the least, where as the foreigners really earn their money and do a great job (talking averages here), and do it a lot cheaper.

The absence of the immigrants means that we're not going to be filling jobs as fast, we're going to lose out on productivity, and it's going to waste money for corporations. Be that on recruitment, productivity, employment (maternity rights, anyone?), and general service. And that affects our economy.

A lot of people slate the Polish for reasons they don't understand, but they were actually a great benefit to our nation - and they expect very little.


Stef - 05 January 2009 14:32

There's a lot of talk in the press about one group of benefit scroungers, the 'feckless' unemployed, and fuck all talk about another group of benefit scroungers, exploitative employers, who can get away with paying shit wages and benefits because the shortfall in what they give their staff is picked up by the welfare state

The DSS, that would be the rest of us, effectively subsidises lousy companies

So maybe, just maybe, a large part of the problem is not that the benefits are too high but that the wages are too low


Anxiety Culture


It's also worth remembering that the expression 'productivity improvement' is largely a euphemism for paying people less money to produce more output

Maybe you could argue that was a good thing if that money made was reinvested in productive infrastructure or paid out in dividends to the people who took the risks and created the jobs in the first place.

What usually happens in practice is that the financial benefits of 'productivity improvements' are trousered by senior management who have no problem with paying people more to do less; provided they are the people being paid more and doing less

By any measure, income inequalities in the UK have increased over the last 10-15 years off the back of this kind of mentality

And, as well as being inequitable, it's unsustainable because, sooner or later, once you've ripped off ordinary people past a certain level they can no longer afford to buy the goodies that make your system go round. They can start borrowing, of course, but that can only work for so long; as we're currently in the process of finding out

People forget now but about 10-15 years ago the press was full of talk of a 'leisure bonus', as new technologies promised to reduce the amount of time people would need to spend at work.

Fifteen years on and now we're being told that we won't be able to afford ever to retire

What happened?

Imagine for a moment you're a member of the Evil Overlord class. Can you imagine anything worse than the prospect of the plebs having more free time on their hands and becoming financially independent?

Fuck that

Think about the kind of useless jobs so many of us are engaged in. Jobs that offer no real benefit to society as a whole and absolutely no sense of satisfaction or self-worth to the people doing them.


Anxiety Culture


The Evil Overlord class would have us believe that any job, however pointless and soul destroying, is worth having just for its own sake

Bollocks to that

It's also worth pondering upon the fact that the vast majority of jobs people would identify as being intrinsically worthwhile and offering a sense of self-worth to the people doing them usually sit at the bottom of society's pay scales. And, speaking as someone who's held down a couple of highish paying jobs in his time, I can absolutely guarantee that higher pay is absolutely in no way intrinsically linked to high ability, high intelligence, high integrity or high commitment



Migrants play along with this shit because they're economically desperate and easily exploited. Neither of these qualities strike me as something we should be encouraging in our society; however profitable they may be for The Few

.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some companies are entirely there due to the welfare state.

Learndirect comes to mind, along with its subsidiaries (their clients are largely unemployed and their funding comes from taxpayers).

paul said...

or the adam smith institute, or common purpose etc,etc
People get fucked off with the public sector, but the private just doesn't come up with the goods.

Anonymous said...

True. But at least to some extent we have the ability not to give money to GSK, by not buying their products for example. We don't have that same choice with the mounds of £££ going into public sector operations.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I just saw this ridiculous claptrap, and felt I had to comment on it:

"I wonder who is going to work for minimum wage now that the people on JSA are living in cushy council homes.."

Is this person for real? Has their mind really been that destroyed?

Stef said...

Capita and Veolia are my favourites

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Veolia have a monopoly on their sector...

Stef said...

Middle Englanders are hacked off at the levels of tax they're paying

Personally, I would agree that taxation levels are at historically high levels

What I don't agree with is is that this is down to the feckless underclass

Once you've stripped out interest payments to the Money Masters, PFI/ Public Private Partnership frauds, Homeland Security bullshit, the occasional war, and the benefits paid to people who ARE working but not paid enough to support their families (effectively another corporate subsidy) you're still left with admittedly a largish sum but only a minor component of the whole

Yet, for some reason which escapes me totally, it's that minority component which the corporate media focuses 90%+ of its attention on

Anonymous said...

It wouldn't be in the global elite's interest to let people know the true scroungers, so they demonise those most impacted by their social engineering - which in turn justifies further social engineering and possibly even outright eugenics.

Stef said...

hmmmm, maybe

Anonymous said...

Are you familiar with the Swedish and American eugenics policies, which in the Sweden case continued late into the 20th century?

In summary: people from minorities, with low grades, and "criminals" were targeted for forced sterilisation (mostly females).

While I'm on this subject, aren't UK fertility rates at an all-time low?

Stef said...

Yeah, I'm up to speed with the eugenics thing

and I'm not exactly Darwin's biggest fan

As for fertility rates and social engineering, as I've already commented on the Conspiraloon Alliance blog True Loons are much more afraid of toothpaste and diet cola than global warming or any other establishment sanctioned scare stories

ziz said...

I'm unemployed, and get a pension from the state. Feckless and fuckless - anyone to lend a hand ?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, supermarket processed junk isn't worth the saving. I don't care if it costs 5 times more, buying non-synthetic\organic products is worth it for my health.

Anonymous said...

People forget now but about 10-15 years ago the press was full of talk of a 'leisure bonus', as new technologies promised to reduce the amount of time people would need to spend at work.

Fifteen years on and now we're being told that we won't be able to afford ever to retire

What happened?

Imagine for a moment you're a member of the Evil Overlord class. Can you imagine anything worse than the prospect of the plebs having more free time on their hands and becoming financially independent?


The thing is, I guess this could have worked to a certain point. You can try to distribute the increase of productivity via a cuts in work time - as has been done until about a decade ago. But productivity is going to increase, no matter what. It is really impossible to stop it in a capitalistic system. So I guess at one day, this (I call it "social-democratic capitalism") system would break down.

Now, what is the alternative in an capitalistic system? As you point out, creating senseless jobs for lousy money?

I say to you, one day, capitalism will break down, because it can no longer sustain itself. This will happen and can only be delayed, but one day, capitalism will fall. It will simply no longer be possible to maintain a functioning capitalistic society. Granted, this might take another 100 years - but it is inevitable.

What will happen once capitalism breaks down?

1. Something will emerge as a new 'natural' order with heaven-send rules. You and I know it: This new order of things will not be natural, it will not benefit the people and it will certainly be pushed into the "right" direction by the few smart and reckless.

2. A new form of society which was 'engineered' with artificial rules. Now you can call it the ism-word which starts with commun. You can call it whatever you want. Think of it like a board game with rules. These rules have to be created and implemented, they have to be constantly revised not to overly bias towards individuals. These rules will have to be created to allow each person to live his life as self-determination as possible. I know, such an society is an (unrealistic) utopia.

But, what you do you want? Some stochastic natural order? Or rather a society created by the by humans for humans?

I know you don't want to first option, but I guess you have your doubts about the second one. Yet as I see it, it is our only chance, to work for what we think is right.

rob said...

the bottom line is that as a country you have to produce goods that others want and competitively or have natural resources others want.If you don´t have those you are fucked in the global economy and end up invading other peoples countries.What does the UK produce and sell abroad competitively?cars?electronics?alternative energy products?leading edge technologies?My wife works at a well known German scientific organization.There are many Chinese scientists working there.She tells me they are very polite but have little time nor inclination to socialize and small talk is virtually a no no.They are totally concentrated focused on their work to an almost robotic degree and very very good at what they do,says it all really.
Fact is other countries can do what we do better cheaply and more efficiently.The "empire" is dead.

Stef said...

The really great thing about the system that's been perfected in the UK over the last ten years is that the falling wages, increasing reliance on state benefits and tax credits, high housing costs and personal debt levels mean that the average person is now everyone's bitch

Anonymous said...

Still, people who have their jobs in the "middle class" will continue to believe it is sustainable to be a "service economy". I've seen it too much to believe they will change now...

Anonymous said...

Also, the link between prices and wages, and the long-term effect of demanding everything for next to nothing (eg tangible items, or services such as internet connections) seems to have eluded people...

Anonymous said...

5 minutes ago MSN reported that the british police are hacking into home computers. This has now been taken down but the thread about it is still up.

No doubt this will all be legal under terrorism laws.

http://boards.msn.com/UK_Tech_Gadgetsboards/thread.aspx?ThreadID=887331

rob said...

Newstopia explains the Reserve Bank

You´ll like this.

Stef said...

There are many Chinese scientists working there.She tells me they are very polite but have little time nor inclination to socialize and small talk is virtually a no no.They are totally concentrated focused on their work to an almost robotic degree and very very good at what they do,says it all really.

I've had similar experiences in my own life but the reason why the Chinese guys were so focused was that they had gone through a very competitive selection process for a chance to work in the west and had made personal sacrifices (leaving family behind) to come over. They were good people carrying the weight of a lot of expectations to perform. They also didn't have much spare cash to socialize

That was a few years ago admittedly so things might be a little easier now.

The only reason why the Chinese didn't become the dominant world superpower six or seven hundred years ago was that, after thinking about it, they decided that they couldn't be bothered...

rob said...

Zheng He couldn't be bothered...

fascinating stuff.

Stef said...

You´ll like this

Comedy Fiat!!

rob said...

Ministers ordered 5,000 stun guns

just incase.

Anonymous said...

Ok found another article regarding police hacking pc's

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5439604.ece

Anonymous said...

It's pretty common knowledge that if you want an excellent individual job done you don't employ British labour. It's par to say the least, where as the foreigners really earn their money and do a great job (talking averages here), and do it a lot cheaper.

- I can't quite agree with that solely on the basis (or faith) that that the tradition of craftsmanship, still can be found in the UK, albeit on the endangered species list.

Unlike you Londonites, My heritage lies in the NE, parts of which have held onto craftsmanship partly because of the rural nature of the place, and therefore it being somewhat traditional, leading to a wee bit more resistance to rampant commercialisation.

Have you been to Beamish Museum? Actually, that place isn't so far removed from what life used to like in the NE until relatively recently. I kid ye not. Even my aunties when we go there say things like 'Eeee, would you look at that, we had things just like that when we were bairns"

Nationwide, (obviously in urban areas) it's a bit different. A big contributor to this has been the abandonment of the apprenticeship.

Cheers maggie - you old hag.

Hard and well learnt skills are as rare as an effective street protest.

The people in need of services don't help much either looking to employ the cheapest cowboy their worthless money can buy. Most people if left with a choice of "Abdul and Sons plumbing services" or "Warchavski Waterworks" of "Johnsons pipe services" ain't gonna be ringing Abdul or Warchavski

Then the public bemoan the consequences about "British" labor.

Yes I know British here is being cast as established white pre-immigration make-up, but that seems to be the common use of the word British, not necessarily mine.

The apprentice schemes should be brought back.

Anonymous said...

Corporations seem unwilling to train their staff, from my own experience - something else that I think isn't helping the problem.