Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr K
Protecting those that don't work by penalising those that do, is a recipe for disaster in our ageing society.
Doesn't matter how well off you are, if those that deliver vital public services , produce food , deliver healthcare, decide it's not worth their while any longer then we're all stuffed.
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I was starting to think as a society we had moved on from this view, and thought we had progress seeing a tory budget prioritising the poorest.
But you not alone, I know a fair few people who agree with you, I tried to explain its not a workers against not workers thing as many of the targeted do actually work. Its a having to target the poorest who are in most need, but we have been groomed since the Thatcher years to be selfish and to treat budgets as in a whats in it for me thing, and this mentality we have has contributed to the state the country is in today as we have been prioritising individuals over society.
When I used to claim sickness benefits, I know the years I was on it, there was no inflationary increases, in fact it was frozen. I also remember a period I was on JSA for about 2 months, I was so poor my sister had to buy my food shopping for me. My experience serves to remind me there is people in a worse situation, those people targeted by the measures. There will always be claims there is a life of luxury, everyone has max sky tv etc. But I only know the reality of my own experience and the people I have met of which none lead a life thats been painted.
I am not sure what people were expecting from this budget, Labour has not managed to get back in to power, on the basis that people think they were a party that spent too much, that built up the countries debt, and we couldnt afford their plans. But yet on this budget people were expecting a nationwide give away whilst there was a 55 billion hole to be plugged, Truss tried to give the least needy what they wanted and it needed the BoE to intervene to prevent financial carnage.
I think we are at the start of a social shift which the Tories have recognised hence this budget, but of course we still have many who not part of that shift, wondering why this budget is so "unfair" and "rewarding lazyness".
I could see the unrest starting as far back as spring, when the CoL payments were first announced loads popped out the wood work "where is my share", "me too" etc. I think it is fair to say the country is split on this, as it is on Brexit.
I do think we have too many taxes, I think we could have scrapped HS2 to ease the tax burden, I think council taxes should be abolished and replaced with central funding, I also think there needs to be more pressure to get wages up closer to inflation, a family member works for one of the energy companies making windfall profits (the actual wealthy part of the company not the supplier part) and is getting a 2% pay rise which is a complete joke, tried to tell her the poor arent to blame for that, but she has made her mind up. There is a union where she works, but it sounds like they not doing anything about it.
I also think education and the NHS were probably right to be protected the most, however we clearly need more spending on housing and communities. Plus a plan for our economy, I think my local area most of the local GDP is from private landlords these days and takeaways. Actual traditional sources of GDP in this country are on the decline. We have a big hospitality industry which is about to get wrecked as thats reliant on people having disposable cash. We heading for very grim times I think, and the current prediction of things getting better as early as 2024 seems very optimistic to me.