Do people take enough responsibility for their own lives?

[Hillpig]

I can't work because I keep getting drunk.

 

Its the states fault for giving me too much money and keeping the pubs open 24 hours a day, they created the 24 hour drinking culture

 

Indeed they did, You are a man who deserves sympathy and compassion. At least you have a good reason for being the way you are.

 

I feel sorry for people who do not drink, when they get up in the morning that's the best they will feel all day.

[Agent Orange]

You only have to look on this forum to know the answer to the OP. The amount of people who can't do anything without the intervention of others is quite frightening really.

[FACEBOOK]

I can't work because I keep getting drunk.

 

Its the states fault for giving me too much money and keeping the pubs open 24 hours a day, they created the 24 hour drinking culture

 

Surely you can't get drunk in the pub all day every day. Wouldn't that become a little boring? How many pints can you buy with unemployment, I would imagine not that many?

[erebus]

Should we take more responsibility for our own lives or is it ok to call in the state to look after us (at other people's expense) if we for example decide we are unable to work, dont want to work, develop a drug problem, get pregnant when you're skint, lose your house, lose your job, get addicted to gambling, sex, violence, shopping, allow your familiy to outgrow your house etc etc

 

So you are suggesting people who cannot work, because the jobs are not there, or the wages fail to pay all the bills do what?

 

Suicide and thus save us the bother?

 

Beg on the streets, so we can walk by corpses>

 

Everything you mentioned need money, cash to exist, but do not worry your dream of these unfortunates suffering and dieing prematurely are on the cards anyway. The start of the exercise is when interest rates START to rise, and the resulting chaos just might put you in with those you sneer at or look down on.

[vwkittie]

Clearly its not your fault, however, no one has the right to a job for life, if technology develops that can do your job for you cheaper and better, or if the demand for your employers products and services decline then you will no longer be required. Move on.

 

Well yes of course you do, but it can take time to find a new job, and I believe everyone should be entitled to support with that (especially as firms will sometimes do their damnedest to get rid of you via the cheapest method, often leaving you with very little or even nothing). The OP seems to be putting people who've been unfortunate enough to lose their job and are working hard towards finding a new job, in with drug addicts and career-benefit scroungers

 

True, but I can sleep easier knowing I've paid x-amount towards that policy

 

Same as any kind of benefit really, if you've paid in during your lifetime then you shouldn't be made to feel like a scrounger by asking for help when you need it most.

 

Exactly, we pay National INSURANCE and it's there to be claimed against in times of need. Nothing wrong with that.

[Jim Graham]

How is it your own fault if you've been made redundant, for example

 

If you have worked and been made redundant the state should provide you with a safety net until you get back into work.

 

What the OP seems to be highlighting is the fact that people who don't feel like working get a bigger and better deal living in the safety net because they have more time on their hands to work out every nuance of the benefit system to maximise its potential. How to exploit the benefits system is now handed down from generation to generation.

 

The newly unemployed get almost nothing by comparison despite having put more in.

 

The Labour Party have kept themselves in power by extending the coverage of the welfare state to more and more people using taxes from workers to buy votes from those who don't bother taking up a free education and end up unemployable or make themselves unemployable through their lifestyle choices.

 

At the last party conference Miliband said he would give the vote to 16 & 17 year olds. Why would that be? Because they've got nowt, and Miliband can buy their votes by giving them your money.

[LeMaquis]

What the OP seems to be highlighting is the fact that people who don't feel like working get a bigger and better deal living in the safety net because they have more time on their hands to work out every nuance of the benefit system to maximise its potential. How to exploit the benefits system is now handed down from generation to generation.

 

The newly unemployed get almost nothing by comparison despite having put more in.

 

What utter crap. People who have just lost their jobs don't get less in benefits than long-term claimants. They may get more as they'll be entitled to benefits that aren't means-tested for 6 months. People in work can get benefits too. Working Tax Credit isn't available to people who don't work.

[El Cid]

 

It is also fair when talking of responsibility, that there is a principle of progressive taxation - that those who have the broadest shoulders carry a bit more. I was thinking of very large supermarkets that rely upon the tax system to top the wages of their lowest paid employees. I think that is an example of not taking responsibility.

 

Isnt it the case that most low wage earners, myself included, cost more to the tax payer than they pay in?

So many people are subsidised by the state. The state is taking over what was once the role of the nuclear family. Now that families are broken and live much further apart, the state must take on the role of the family.

 

The question is does the state cause families to break up by giving single parents more tax breaks than married couples? The state also helps the spread of our reliance on vehicles. The scrapage scheme in 2009 gave people £2,000 to buy a new car.

[Ms Macbeth]

What utter crap. People who have just lost their jobs don't get less in benefits than long-term claimants. They may get more as they'll be entitled to benefits that aren't means-tested for 6 months. People in work can get benefits too. Working Tax Credit isn't available to people who don't work.

 

Some do. I know of two people who have lost their jobs in the last year, both of whom were in their late 50s and were the main breadwinners for their household. Because they decided to take their fairly small (private) pensions, they were excluded from earnings related JSA. They thought the combined income would tide them over until they got another job. I would imagine there are a lot of people who don't know about that rule until it affects them.

 

Responsible older people were sold down the river with the introduction of Pension Credit. As a pensioner, I've gone to several meetings where the state pension has been the topic of discussion. Pensioners who have saved for a modest pension are often very little better off than those who haven't. These responsible people don't have enough income to pay tax, yet get no means tested benefits. If they hadn't taken any responsibility for their retirement, they'd now get Pension Credit, along with the added benefits it attracts, and would hardly be worse off.

[SpikeMac]

 

The Labour Party have kept themselves in power by extending the coverage of the welfare state to more and more people using taxes from workers to buy votes from those who don't bother taking up a free education and end up unemployable or make themselves unemployable through their lifestyle choices.

 

.

 

Jim. You do talk some twaddle. Did they do maths at your school?

 

Were you off that day?

 

How can favouring a minority at the expense of the majority win elections? It doesn't add up.

 

Literally.