JSA, Income Support, ESA and Child benefit all to be CUT

[Cyclone]

There are significant advantages to not having 50% of economically capable adults not working though.

 

Not to mention the obvious problems of self determination and liberty that would be involved in trying to tell half of a household that they could no longer work!

[WeX]

Can anyone give an example of how if a family is on benefits they would not be able to feed themselves with the new arrangement?

 

I keep hearing of charities saying more and more people are using their services, such as food banks etc.

[Green Web]

The Left are full of hate.... Thats why they often seem to resort to anti-semitism; as. for some reason thats not "racist"

 

That's because the Jews despite their vile treatment by the historic extreme right are still very successful which debunks every left argument about why other races and nationalities are not up to scratch.

[maxmaximus]

There are significant advantages to not having 50% of economically capable adults not working though.

 

Not to mention the obvious problems of self determination and liberty that would be involved in trying to tell half of a household that they could no longer work!

 

You wouldn't have to tell them they can't work, just cutting child care benefits, which weren't available to my family would have the result of keeping some working parents at home, which would mean more jobs available for the younger generation that don't have kids, and would make housing less affordable so will become cheaper over time.

[Cyclone]

You wouldn't have to tell them they can't work, just cutting child care benefits, which weren't available to my family would have the result of keeping some working parents at home, which would mean more jobs available for the younger generation that don't have kids, and would make housing less affordable so will become cheaper over time.

 

So this would disproportionately affect the low paid.

[convert]

I think we'll have to have a radical rethink.

 

I'm not sure how we'll be able to change things, but remember that if 10 cars are made by 10 men or 1 robot the end result is still 10 cars to sell, so if they are made by 1 robot then profits, exports etc will actually go up.

 

I agree with you on capping child benefit to 2 children, and limiting immigration, and other sensible measures. I'd also personally like to see one parent at home when the children are small, and less reliance on nurseries.

 

I'd like to see all jobs become job share, employing 2 people instead of one. I haven't really thought it through but I do realise that it would bring with it lots of problems, it's merely a starting point. Unless we find a way of sharing out the work we will become a nation divided by those who have work and money, and those who do not. This will undoubtedly lead to some very expensive social problems - so I ask, can we afford not to do it?

 

When my Dad started work many years ago the normal working week was about 48hours. That has reduced to 38 hours without loss of income. We also found a way to absorb women, who up until 40 years ago stayed at home when married, into the workplace, so change can happen with the right will and proper management.

 

We were promised a future with more leisure, maybe it's time to find a way to make it happen for all.

 

Good post Anna.

 

This is not something that we're going to fix overnight. It's going to take a generation to get us back on track.

 

I'm not sure about job share, I think it would be much better to reduce the population of the country. Restricting Child benefit and immigration would be a good start to this.

 

I agree that automation has drastically reduced the need for workers, but outsourcing has had a similar effect upon the finance / IT / service industries.

 

We can't halt progress, so automation will continue, however we can make it financially prohibitive for companies to outsource / offshore jobs. The Government has already made a small start on this by the changes to the visa system.

 

We need to get out of the EU, and adopt an immigration policy that 'benefits' the UK.

 

Rather than importing labour to do unskilled / manual work we need to get our own unemployed off their backsides and into these lower paid jobs.

 

We need to make sure that everyone who can work doesn't have the option to just sit back and take state handouts; perhaps then we can be more generous with benefits for those who genuinely can't (not won't) work.

 

I've already had to tighten my belt over the last 4 years; but I'd happily tighten it even more (pay more tax) if a Government would address the ever incresing benefits timebomb.

[Obelix]

Here's a clue from post 96.

 

Already answered in post 98, which you clearly havent read. Take the plank out of your eye and read it.

[Cyclone]

Good post Anna.

 

This is not something that we're going to fix overnight. It's going to take a generation to get us back on track.

 

I'm not sure about job share, I think it would be much better to reduce the population of the country. Restricting Child benefit and immigration would be a good start to this.

 

I agree that automation has drastically reduced the need for workers, but outsourcing has had a similar effect upon the finance / IT / service industries.

 

We can't halt progress, so automation will continue, however we can make it financially prohibitive for companies to outsource / offshore jobs.

No, we can't. Because what will happen then is that the entire company will off-shore itself and then it will employ no one and pay no UK tax.

The Government has already made a small start on this by the changes to the visa system.

 

We need to get out of the EU, and adopt an immigration policy that 'benefits' the UK.

Whilst we might be able to adopt an immigration policy that is somehow better suited, the loss of access to the single market would probably harm our economy more than any benefit we gained though.

 

Rather than importing labour to do unskilled / manual work we need to get our own unemployed off their backsides and into these lower paid jobs.

 

We need to make sure that everyone who can work doesn't have the option to just sit back and take state handouts; perhaps then we can be more generous with benefits for those who genuinely can't (not won't) work.

I can't really disagree with this.

 

I've already had to tighten my belt over the last 4 years; but I'd happily tighten it even more (pay more tax) if a Government would address the ever incresing benefits timebomb.

I don't think there's a timebomb, there's no prediction of benefits suddenly getting much more expensive at some point in the future, which is what that phrase would suggest.

[L00b]

We can't halt progress, so automation will continue, however we can make it financially prohibitive for companies to outsource / offshore jobs.

You'd have to remain careful not to render UK businesses uncompetitive, however. At home or abroad.

 

It's a much more delicate balancing act than your post suggests (though the Visa-based changes are a good way to go about it, as a slow-burner measure which gives employers time to adapt).

We need to make sure that everyone who can work doesn't have the option to just sit back and take state handouts; perhaps then we can be more generous with benefits for those who genuinely can't (not won't) work.

I'm led to believe this is currently being rolled out (to an extent)?

[Fivetide]

It's not like the 1% aren't making healthy profits... from paying workers the lowest wages possible, charging customers the highest prices they can get away with, not paying any taxes to maintain the system they take advantage of...

 

...that's why there's not enough money going round for the rest of us to share, because the top 1% exploit the system to drain its wealth... while telling us we should be grateful.

 

...limit the baronial corporations' exploitation of society, and society would see standards of living rise.

 

---------- Post added 10-12-2012 at 11:29 ----------

 

No, we can't. Because what will happen then is that the entire company will off-shore itself and then it will employ no one and pay no UK tax.

 

But a company that did that wouldn't be taking money from our pockets and sending it abroad. And the gap they left in our system from moving abroad would be filled by a British tax-paying business.

 

Let them go. They're not contributing anything. They're taking everything they can. That's the problem.