Poor people are poor because they don’t know how to get something from nothing | kittysjones
Clearly, today is Satire Saturday – kittysjones has come out with a cracking piece, of which the following is just a couple of excerpts. She writes:
It’s truly remarkable that whenever we have a Conservative government, we suddenly witness media coverage of an unprecedented rise in the numbers of poor people who suddenly seem to develop a considerable range of baffling personal ineptitudes and immediately dysfunctional lives.
We see a proliferation of “skivers” and “scroungers”, an uprising of “fecklessness”, a whole sneaky “culture of entitlement”, “drug addicts”, a riot of general all-round bad sorts, and apparently, the numbers of poor people who suddenly can’t cook a nutritious meal has climbed dramatically, too.
Elsewhere, she continues:
Many Sun and Daily Mail readers think that disabled poor people aren’t allowed to do anything at all that looks normal, they get very distressed and outraged that you aren’t suffering enough, so they will kindly report you. Strictly in your best interests of course, because to these kind, unprejudiced, well-meaning souls, there’s nothing more important than ensuring your complete sacrifice and suffering, and it’s the surest way of getting your benefit stopped, then you can get on with wallowing in your hard-won destitution, suffering and absolute poverty.
Because as this thrifty government of self-helping, help themselves specialists has demonstrated, you’re absolutely worth it.
Now read the rest: Poor people are poor because they don’t know how to get something from nothing | Politics and Insights – kittysjones
Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have enjoyed this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
spot on.
Isn’t the biggest “culture of entitlement” the royal family and it’s hangers on, House of Lords etc ?, or am I just in my usual left wing, pro republic, pro democracy really fed up of welfare claiments bashing? For most social security claiments this is not something for nothing entitlement,this is insurance based. Excellent piece.
I posted a comment on the Daily Mail website, in which I mentioned doing without so I could get medicine for my 90 year old cat. There were many replies saying that a cat was a luxury, and that I should not have one if I was receiving ESA. I politely explained that I had worked full time for 30 years before I became ill, and I had got the aforementioned cat, when he was a kitten,during this time. I then asked what they expected me to do with the poor old lad, throw him out? I was amazed by how many said that I should have him put to sleep, they said I should not be spending their taxpayer money on an animal!
Perhaps I should be measured for a suit of sackcloth and ashes, and beg forgiveness for daring to become ill whilst in possession of a pet?
I’ve met the same response concerning my own cat. It’s the new new poor law mentality, these people expect you to have nothing in order to qualify as “genuinely poor,” no matter how long you worked and contributed. I’m in similar circumstaces, worked until illness prevented me from being able to.
Then there’s the contradictions we face: on the one hand we get the wealthy wallies telling us we can’t budget, and that’s why we are poor, and then te evidence that we stretch our paltry benefit to incredible limits …
You know all of these media obsessed rich people slating poor people for “poor budgeting skills”? It’s rubbish, because we all know that poor people have plasma screen TVs, Sky dishes on their houses, loads of unkempt children, holidays abroad and money left over for takeaways, junk food, drink and drugs. Now I reckon that’s EXCEPTIONAL budgeting skill. It’s the new something from nothing culture.
I say Osborne could learn a thing or two on managing budgets from the poor. The ultimate in making a mountain from a molehill
I worked into my 40s before I finally had to give up work, and something else I always point out, is that my family have paid more tax in one year than ever I could withdraw in benefits; just one of them paid £27,000, so I’m damned if I’m going to feel guilty about enjoying some recreation every now and then because my benefits are fully funded, and even if you didn’t have a family like that, most have paid tax all of their lives.
What people don’t seem to ‘get’ is that disabled people have a right to lead a normal full life.If you want a pet then you should have one. If you want to go out for a meal or to the pub with friends every now and then you should be able to. In fact, whatever you’re capable of doing to feel fulfilled then you should be able to.
I’m too ill to do much but I’m not going to feel guilty about going out or doing things that make me happy. I’d love to go back to work but it’s impossible. People say, well if you can go to the pub for 2 hours you can work, but then they don’t see the next 4 weeks when I’m primarily living in pygamas and I can hardly walk a few steps. I can sit on a garden chair and perhaps do some light gardening from that chair for 15 minutes once a week, but that doesn’t mean that I can work full time. Disabled people need to keep doing little things like this or you suffer muscle wastage, but it’s also enjoyable. Life is hard enough and mostly about pain and suffering, so you need to be able to look forward to the odd thing that makes life worth living.
Even if you’re claiming JSA, if you’re spending 35 hours a week on the work programme and looking for work, why shouldn’t you be able to have some recreation? Now of course, we know that you can hardly survive on JSA as it is, but really, you’ve earned that benefit never mind paid in for it, so if it was possible, why shouldn’t you have a pint now and then?
But like the article, it’s as if you should consider yourself a piece of dirt, living in complete misery, the comments under that Daily Heil article demonstrate this. How far removed has society become from their humanity? Before all the care plans were cut, disabled people were encouraged to lead full lives in society; some people grumbled about it, but generally it was accepted that disabled people had a right to have a social life and be included. Now it’s like we’re to find a hole to crawl into and just die. How shameful!
The problem is that sanctions an other questionable actions by the authorities pick on the wrong people 98% of the time.
Usually people new to claiming or those they “think are a bit naive”
Rarely do they go after those who need further investigations as it means to much paperwork and said people using all means possible to evade and dodge.
A case in point was when me and a colleague went to a house where the kids were running round half dressed, the house was filthy and dirty washing had piled up.
The mother was stoned on the bed, flat out.
Social services and the police got involved but let things carry on, so nothing has changed, there were several more similar cases.
Same goes for the job centre, making only certain people enter the work programme to write endless cv’s and applications.
Further posts on seercharlottes blog show the attitude of not just the general public who make snide comments about her protests, but that out of hundreds of claimants who use A-U-L job centre, only a handful feel the need to take any action.
maybe doctors should be told not to recommend to old ladies of pensionable age who are also disabled and not through age but for some years, to get a dog to get them out a bit more and also .if living alone, for companionship to avoid depression. cos they do that. (im one of them) maybe we should give up our 4 legged friends who help us a bi to stay that bit mentally alert etc./
I’m in the same boat, I got ill at the wrong time and now find myself totally at the tender mercies of Obergruppenfuhrer Duncan-Smiff and his Gestapo that he has taken over from Labour, honed and refined it into the merciless Department it is today. I manage, I don’t drink or smoke, I survive, I make do, and the little bit of DLA I do receive does help keep my chin above water, but any major catastrophes is another matter, but the Obergruppenfuhrer is determined to take it off me.
However, my point is this because the person who fills in the forms for me refuses to lie or exaggerate my circumstances, in other words honestly, the Obergruppenfuhrer believes I’m on “the fiddle”. Yet not 300 yards from my home lives a family containing 5 adults, several children,some of working age who have never worked as far back as living memory and yet there are 5 motors out front including one sportscar and three 4×4 Chelsea Tractors, the 5 males in the house frequent the local hostelries and bookmakers on a daily basis, and the house as far as anyone can tell is filled with all the usual domestic appliances, all brand new including what must be a 65″ Plasma TV in the front room as they are not afraid to flaunt their “wealth”.
Not only do I marvel at their ability to acquire all these accoutrements with no discernible income, I also marvel at the fact that the Obergruppenfuhrer seems determined to nail me even though I’ve worked all my life up until my illness and payed into the system whereas this lot and others like them openly brag about how much they’ve fiddled and the Obergruppenfuhrer seems to ignore them?
I too recently lost my old buddy Buster, a mongrel I rescued from a junkie over 12 years ago, and there were times when he ate and I didn’t but we coped, and my Diabetes nurse has said the sooner I get another “Buster” into my life the better my health will be, so damned if you do damned if you don’t.
You know what?
It’s not a good idea to talk about other people’s circumstances. You don’t know everything about them and creating division between people is the classic Tory tactic – so you should beware of falling into it.