Actual unemployment rate now stands at 17.5%

[The Scotsman]

In the UK? Do they have welfare and an SSI type of system? Somehow I thought only Americans had such stupid programs where perfectly healthy people were supported by the tax payers.

....... Panda there are so many benefits avaliable to the indolent masses it would blow your mind.......truely! You would freak out at the level of benefits being paid to people that have no intention of making any kind of positive contribution to society; whose sole interest is to maximise their personal gain through exploitation of a byzantine web of benefits that positively encourages idleness. Our government has engineered a whole class of people who are reliant on benefits and who are encouraged to remain on benefits. They are the voting fodder of the Labour party who will keep voting for them so long as the benefits keep flowing! A whole socially engineered class of depended voters.....cool huh!!

Tracey Crompton has never had a job, and her husband Harry has been out of work for 15 years. Yet the couple live for free in a seven bedroom house with their ten children and receive £32,656 in benefits a year.

They even have their own vineyard in their 270ft long garden


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...enefits--STILL-arent-happy.html#ixzz0WDtUgCIE

 

[ASPCA4EVER]

....... Panda there are so many benefits avaliable to the indolent masses it would blow your mind.......truely! You would freak out at the level of benefits being paid to people that have no intention of making any kind of positive contribution to society; whose sole interest is to maximise their personal gain through exploitation of a byzantine web of benefits that positively encourages idleness. Our government has engineered a whole class of people who are reliant on benefits and who are encouraged to remain on benefits. They are the voting fodder of the Labour party who will keep voting for them so long as the benefits keep flowing! A whole socially engineered class of depended voters.....cool huh!!

Awww those wonderful memories of the Reagan Years...oh you were talking about over there...across the pond

 

[Pandora]

....... Panda there are so many benefits avaliable to the indolent masses it would blow your mind.......truely! You would freak out at the level of benefits being paid to people that have no intention of making any kind of positive contribution to society; whose sole interest is to maximise their personal gain through exploitation of a byzantine web of benefits that positively encourages idleness. Our government has engineered a whole class of people who are reliant on benefits and who are encouraged to remain on benefits. They are the voting fodder of the Labour party who will keep voting for them so long as the benefits keep flowing! A whole socially engineered class of depended voters.....cool huh!!

Dang, I had no idea!

I know many people here who live off the government, or should I say the tax payers with no intent or desire to ever get a job, but I really did think it was just an American problem.

 

[PLC1]

Dang, I had no idea!

I know many people here who live off the government, or should I say the tax payers with no intent or desire to ever get a job, but I really did think it was just an American problem.

It's pretty widespread, actually. I think it was the Romans who first invented the welfare state, but someone else may have done so sooner. Anyway, it didn't do them any good.
Of course, ending the welfare state would have been a lot easier when there were actually jobs available. As it is now, there are so many people out of work that no one is going to hire a welfare drone even if they did want to go to work.

Unemployment compensation is not, by the way, the same as welfare.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the WPA is the way to go. Everyone should work, and there should be jobs for everyone. The cost of such a program would be offset by not making welfare payments.

 

[Pandora]

It's pretty widespread, actually. I think it was the Romans who first invented the welfare state, but someone else may have done so sooner. Anyway, it didn't do them any good.
Of course, ending the welfare state would have been a lot easier when there were actually jobs available. As it is now, there are so many people out of work that no one is going to hire a welfare drone even if they did want to go to work.

Unemployment compensation is not, by the way, the same as welfare.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the WPA is the way to go. Everyone should work, and there should be jobs for everyone. The cost of such a program would be offset by not making welfare payments.

What is WPA?

I dont think anyone thought unemployment is welfare.

 

[PLC1]

What is WPA?

I dont think anyone thought unemployment is welfare.

I hope not, but I'm not so sure.

Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a program to put people to work during the depression. They took on labor intensive projects and hired people who had been out of work for a long time. If you know where to look, you can still see some of the stonework that they did. It helped get the economy moving again by putting money in people's pockets without actually expanding the welfare state.

Here's more about the program.

 

[Pidgey]

Boy, don't get me started on the completely dumb@$$ stuff that FDR did... like the slaughter of millions of livestock to help bring the prices up and leaving wheat and corn in the fields unharvested for the same reason, all the while with people starving to death. Washington has ALWAYS served the interests of business instead of the citizens, don't embarrass yourself like that.

 

[PLC1]

Boy, don't get me started on the completely dumb@$$ stuff that FDR did... like the slaughter of millions of livestock to help bring the prices up and leaving wheat and corn in the fields unharvested for the same reason, all the while with people starving to death. Washington has ALWAYS served the interests of business instead of the citizens, don't embarrass yourself like that.

Do you have a link to Roosevelt slaughtering livestock and leaving wheat unharvested to bring up prices? Google doesn't seem to have heard of it. Regardless, it has nothing to do with the WPA or the advisability of bringing it back.

 

[Pidgey]

Yes, that stuff is difficult to find in online historical records for obvious reasons but it's not impossible. Navajo herds were reduced horrifically during the '30s and the newspapers of the day had plenty of articles about it. Part of it was in the Agricultural Adjustment Act (there were a few of those during those times) although it wouldn't have been worded such that you could indict them. The Supreme Court of the day thought there were some problems with it.

 

[PLC1]

Yes, that stuff is difficult to find in online historical records for obvious reasons but it's not impossible. Navajo herds were reduced horrifically during the '30s and the newspapers of the day had plenty of articles about it. Part of it was in the Agricultural Adjustment Act (there were a few of those during those times) although it wouldn't have been worded such that you could indict them. The Supreme Court of the day thought there were some problems with it.

Yes, that sort of thing can be difficult to find, and when it is found, as a rule there is either some other part of the story that hasn't been told, or the source is not a credible one. But, I'd be interested in your link.

 

[The Scotsman]

THREADJACK

Do you have a link to Roosevelt slaughtering livestock and leaving wheat unharvested to bring up prices?

.........it seems to have been part of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 enacted as part an agricultural price stabilisation scheme to increase the earnings of farmers, how extensive the scheme was I have no idea but the scheme was either a titanic failure or a rampant success depending upon your political point of view..............anyway

Regardless, it has nothing to do with the WPA or the advisability of bringing it back.

....absolutely right! If anyone wants to continue that theme then open a new thread!


/ THREADJACK