Benefits, as an option for living are a complete myth... WTC levels are trivial, there is an online calculator somewhere - plug a few numbers into it and you'll find it's not worth a light. And there are numerous accounts of what a draconian twisted system it's become - even if people are entitled to it, there is no guarantee that they will get it. We've all seen the carefully constructed propaganda demonising those living in poverty, and hear tales of how the system is played. But reality, as always, is different.
The system is out of control because of its complexity and (in common with much of public service) the abdication of responsibility by the government to various 'private' entities which, on top of the requirement to provide the service, have the additional overhead and overriding priority of servicing shareholders and providing inflated salaries for their (largely parasitic) senior management.
If you're concerned about your taxes being wasted; then your ire should be directed there; for what these people are about is gambling with, and extracting for themselves, as much of the pot as is possible; simultaneously deflecting attention from their activities, and projecting the blame elsewhere - a common pattern with common crooks!
Likewise... There is no 'ladder'. Hasn't been in my working lifetime, it was snatched away decades ago. Even with an advanced education, you will encounter various glass ceilings, those without that have, for a few generations now, had no option and no path forward. And the reason for that is our essential manufacturing base has been exported; Shopkeepers, bedammned, artisans bereft, we are instead, expected to be a nation of gamblers!
As for the tail wagging the dog... No. Absolutely not.
The entire moral basis, reason and purpose for business being a desirable thing to promote is that it organises and distributes work, from which people must benefit fairly; not be enslaved to. Instead, over the past forty or so years the focus has been on the ever-shrinking few in control, gathering as much from the pot as they can for themselves at the expense of others. - Every social advance that was made as the result of two world wars has been eroded; and the sacrifice of those generations frankly, pissed upon from a great height.
Simply, if the 'job' you need done does not pay the person you need to do it enough to live on, then your activity is parasitic, because ultimately you expect 'someone else' to either top up what you're paying, or for that person to go hungryand/or homeless. And I've seen very real examples of this in modern Britain. - People have even starved to death in this 21st century benefits paradise!
- Personally, I'm not prepared to pay below the rates set by BECTU (the television trade union) and simply will not (knowingly) support any business which embraces exploitative or abusive practices . And it's the setting of that rate which then drives forward the cost of providing services. - And to those that might start to wail and gnash their teeth at the 'inflationary' nature of this I'm happy to point out that the rates I charge are among the lowest - for the level and type of service - to be found anywhere in the UK.
A race to the bottom sees everyone sinking in the dirt! - and I think those particular chickens are coming home to roost; the bigger picture being that we're at a comparable point of scocio-economic crisis was we were 100 years ago, and, sadly, I suspect the catalysts for change might be the same as they were back then.
