People not wanting to work?

[*_ash_*]

According to Chem1st, the Dole is going up by 5.2%.

 

If you're working, are you getting a 5.2% pay rise?

 

Should benefits rises be tied to average wage rises?

Though I understood this post RB. I'll 'fess up' and add that I didn't understand his post in this thread. I was hoping someone would quote him and make it clear

[MC Spyda]

I definitely don't want to work, but I know that I have to work.

[*_ash_*]

The dole is only going up by 5.2% because the average cost of goods & services has gone up that much, it's linked to price inflation.

 

If your wages didn't go up by at least that amount then you need to complain to your employer because you've effectively taken a pay cut.

 

This sums up point 4 in post 1.

Benefit claimers feeling more stable with regular weekly payments

[Rupert_Baehr]

What about low wages & lack of work?

 

The dole is only going up by 5.2% because the average cost of goods & services has gone up that much, it's linked to price inflation. If your wages didn't go up by at least that amount then you need to complain to your employer because you've effectively taken a pay cut. Usually wages rise faster than price inflation (that hasn't been true for the last 4 years, but in the long term it's true), so yes, benefits should be tied to wage inflation rather than price inflation.

 

So if I run a company which makes Widgets in Beijing and you run a company which makes widgets in Sheffield then you are going to increase the wages of your workers by 5.2% (because that is inflation) this year. Given that direct labour costs are a significant (if not the most significant) cost of the production of widgets, then if you increase your workers' wages by 5.2% and I can get away with increasing my workers' wages by 2.5%, who will be able to sell widgets at the lowest price?

 

You're a good guy and you do like to look after your workers, but eventually, aren't you going to realise that you would be better off making widgets in China?

 

It's probably Maggie's fault.

[anywebsite]

If you're an employee & you're seeing all your bills, everything you pay for rise by 5.2%, aren't you going to want your wages to go up by at least that amount? Money is worth less every year, you have to at least get wage increases that match price inflation to be paid the same in real terms. Usually wage inflation is higher than price inflation, benefits are linked to price inflation, so they get lower each year as a proportion of average wages. I think that was actually Maggie's fault, you can look it up. It's possible to blame nearly everything wrong with the world on Maggie, with quite a lot of justification.

 

A lot of production these days is highly automated & not that labour intensive, high quality things that the Chinese can't produce, or they're service industries that can't be replaced by cheap overseas labour.

 

Another thing to consider is we've seen our exchange rate fall, the pound is worth much less on world markets than it was 5 years ago. Imports - most of the things we buy are more expensive & our exports are cheaper. Our manufacturers are doing quite well because of that, their exports are cheaper than they would be if we were in the Euro, or if the pound didn't devalue so much, so it could be worse.

 

If I want somebody to do a job for me then I believe in paying them fairly. I don't squeeze people for the lowest they can possibly manage on before they leave & do something else, because that causes poorly motivated workers, they probably wouldn't do as good a job & it'd end up costing me more to do it again.

 

If you want to make the situation more realistic to me, then I could get all my websites made in India & pay them peanuts, but then I'd get low quality websites that cost more to maintain. It's not worth it for me & by the time Indian programmers catch up with British programmers they'll be demanding similar wages.

[Mecky]

'Tonight' programme... (my goodness the host annoys me:gag:)

 

The programme highlighted that rather than people not being able to find work, that people don't want to work.

 

Celebrity culture was blamed.

Too high benefits blamed.

Young people leaving school with no people skills was blamed.

Benefit claimers feeling more stable with regular weekly payments.

Link to programme

 

I agreed with some of it, innit.

 

A rather simplistic view, but then again, look at the target viewers. There seems to be a lot of these TVs shows around at the moment trying to influence public opinion and villifying people, I wonder why that might be?

[Rupert_Baehr]

If you're an employee & you're seeing all your bills, everything you pay for rise by 5.2%, aren't you going to want your wages to go up by at least that amount? Money is worth less every year, you have to at least get wage increases that match price inflation to be paid the same in real terms. Usually wage inflation is higher than price inflation, benefits are linked to price inflation, so they get lower each year as a proportion of average wages. I think that was actually Maggie's fault, you can look it up. It's possible to blame nearly everything wrong with the world on Maggie, with quite a lot of justification.

 

LMAO:hihi: - C'Mon. When Maggie was in power there were about 1.2 Billion fewer Chinese. Did she breed the whole lot herself? Is Maggie Thatcher solely responsible for an additional 1.2 Billion Chinese workers who (a) don't go on strike (b) don't bitch about having to work to get paid © out-produce workers in the Western World and (d) (and this is really scary!) are beginning to produce as many competent engineers as does Sheffield University.

 

...A lot of production these days is highly automated & not that labour intensive, high quality things that the Chinese can't produce, or they're service industries that can't be replaced by cheap overseas labour.

 

Wake up and smell the coffee, boy. - Where have you been for the last 40 years? The demand for unskilled labour in the UK (as elsewhere) is low. It's been like that for many years. If you're entering the job market, you need the skills the employers want - not the 'skills' you think they ought to want.

 

Simple skills like 'being able to read and write' help. AS an employer, I don't give a twopenny damn about your ability towrttytspk,m8 - I want somebody who can communicate (fluently) in English.

 

I'll settle for somebody who can speak English (at a push) I'd prefer somebody who speaks English, French, Hochdeutsch and [if I'm really lucky ] Boarisch. (Oberauer Dialekt.)

If you show up for an interview looking like something the cat dragged through the hedge, then the cat is welcome to employ you. I don't want you working for me.

 

Another thing to consider is we've seen our exchange rate fall, the pound is worth much less on world markets than it was 5 years ago. Imports - most of the things we buy are more expensive & our exports are cheaper. Our manufacturers are doing quite well because of that, their exports are cheaper than they would be if we were in the Euro, or if the pound didn't devalue so much, so it could be worse.

 

If I want somebody to do a job for me then I believe in paying them fairly. I don't squeeze people for the lowest they can possibly manage on before they leave & do something else, because that causes poorly motivated workers, they probably wouldn't do as good a job & it'd end up costing me more to do it again.

 

If you want to make the situation more realistic to me, then I could get all my websites made in India & pay them peanuts, but then I'd get low quality websites that cost more to maintain. It's not worth it for me & by the time Indian programmers catch up with British programmers they'll be demanding similar wages.

 

You really haven't got a clue, have you? (Writes he, being prepared to stand back and be underwhelmed by your academic explanation of global currency trading.)(Something I did for a living at one time [some years ago ]

[MrSmith]

A couple of years ago I went on a CBT course. It was mostly full of benefit claimants. Towards the end an advisor from the job centre came in to talk to each individually. The lady asked all leading questions, one being, "I know you won't want to work because it's not worth it money wise, you're better off on the dole", "No love I work hard running my own little business", but she was telling them how to play the system, no wonder they didn't think work was a good idea!

 

If they don't play the system and all go to work, she will be out of work, she was probably just thinking of her own job.

[truman]

If you're an employee & you're seeing all your bills, everything you pay for rise by 5.2%, aren't you going to want your wages to go up by at least that amount? .

 

Where does the company find the money to pay for this?

[TJC1]

If you are including things like child benefit (the recipients of which are of course benefit claimants), then you would most likely be right. However, no one relies on child benefit alone to live on as a household income (and it's unaffected for people who find work of less than about £50k anyway), so there would be no reason to mention it on a programme about looking for work.

 

Housing, council tax, child benefit etc. the vast majority are working and in decent jobs. Have you not seen the recent budget.