I've run a business for four years. In that time, I've had (at the last count) six calls looking for work, which I consider to be pretty low and which doesn't reflect a world where jobs are terribly scarce and people keen to find a job. I appreciate that Southampton may not be representative but it's one person's experience. Vin
I'm not sure I can really blame him, he was in a situation where through no fault of his own, he was going to lose his savings, one way or another. It was a rational choice to spend them on some things he wanted rather than spend them on things that would otherwise be covered by benefits. I'm sure he'd rather have had a job than have to spend his savings at all. I wonder why he didn't employ a British cleaner. Probably because despite what he said, he wasn't willing to pay them enough. Did you actually advertise a job? Or were these calls unsolicited? Here's another example, of what happens when a job is actually advertised: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-eight-jobs-at-costa-coffee-shop-8501329.html
It's Labour's cost of living crisis they keep harping on about. They say people can't afford to eat, but studies suggest that people are getting fatter and there were record Christmas sales last year. I think that people need to be taught how to manage their money better if some are struggling to afford food.
You need to have money to be able to manage money better. People getting fatter is not evidence that they are eating well, and record christmas sales also indicate nothing much except that inflation happens. There are record sales every year for this reason.
There is always work if you are prepared to do it. That doesn't mean that it necessarily makes sense to do it, economically or otherwise. I've been unemployed before and I ended up going to America to find work. A bit drastic maybe and more than some would be prepared to do. But I made ends meet (and had a bit of fun, it must be said). As has been said before, the minimum wage needs to be sufficiently high to persuade people into employment no matter how undesirable the job.
This is true and unfortunately it tends to be the less well educated, and possibly poorer, who have the worst diets. The daft thing is that it is actually cheaper to eat well if you source stuff cleverly (nb not sauce!). There are, of course, others who simply eat too much. Hence, I was easily able to put on had a stone over Christmas.
How is it cheaper to eat well? Can you give some examples because in my experience, the cheapest food is invariable unhealthy. Unless by "source cleverly" you mean stealing cabbages from fields or something?
It can be, but it's hard work. Indian and Chinese diets are typically very cheap and healthy but you have to find a good Indian/Chinese supermarket and then spend hours cooking.
You have to pay your rent or mortgage before buying food. You can eat in the street but you can't sleep in the street. Average rents in London are about £1200pcm for a 2 bedroom flat. That's a big chunk out of any family's income before you consider council tax, gas & electricity, and water rates. That's all before food. It's a myth to assume that all, or even most, of the people using food banks could solve the problem by managing their money better.
Lentils, vegetables, some cheap cuts of meat and some creativity and you can eat cheap. And yes, I reckon many of these dishes will be asian if I really though it out. People don't seem to have the time to want to cook any more.
Use veg, rice or pasta to eke out bits of meat...only a small piece of meat supplies the iron and protein you need. Slow cooking improves texture of cheap cuts, though I prefer a small amount of a better cut. Porridge is great for breakfast (in fact I've just had some for tea ) and supermarket own brands are cheap. Baked beans are very nutritious...apparently a food that humans can virtually live on alone (don't quote me...just read it somewhere). Some people have no desire to cook (including me) but also some people have limited access to kitchens, for example if in a bed-sit.
Made a vegetable curry tonight. Potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, spices, rice. All dirt cheap. I do understand that some people don't have a lot of time to cook, and the last thing you want to do after a long day at work is to stand in front of a hot stove when you could be collapsing on the sofa, but taking a bit of pride in your creation and having a couple of glasses of wine in the process makes it worth it for me. You can always cook enough for several meals as well, then it's just a case of getting home and reheating.
Oh I don't blame him either, as you say it was a perfectly rational decision. I'd say the same of someone out of work who turned down a job when taking it would mean they end up with less money than they currently get in benefits. The point is that these situations shouldn't happen. The welfare system shouldn't reward people for buying a load of unnecessary luxury goods. Who knows? The cleaner did have permission to work in the UK when she started working for him so presumably he advertised the job and then employed the best person who applied. Perhaps no Brits wanted the job.
I grow my own veg, not all, but from spring on, a lot. There is something very satisfying about that and they taste better. Picking up on Bing's comment about time to cook, I would try whenever possible as it is the best way of putting work behind you at the end of the day. Murdering a carrot at the end of the day can be therapeutic.
I know a lot of the above points have been countered but this does bring us back to the genesis of this debate and education. I left school too long ago to comment on our current education system, but from the young people I work with I don't think much has changed in terms of the relevance of our education to the working world. I think they know more about Wizardry thanks to Harry Potter than how a loan or Mortgage is calculated. I don't think they're stupid or less intelligent as I came out of school as naive on lots of things myself, they've just never been taught something which is fundamental for their future. Lots of our modern crisis; debt, obesity, drug/alcohol abuse etc could have been reduced with education based in the world we live in today and not on texts and exams printed years before. And i'm not talking the token effort of about 1 hour a week I got for social studies, i mean every subject given a focus towards the present and more importantly the future world.
No, I didn't advertise a job. But I had a series of students and school-leavers awaiting the start of course or other jobs who were constantly moving on so every four months or so if someone had called they'd have had a job. Annual pay about £12,000. When I was younger and I wanted a job, I just sat down with the phone book and called people until I found someone who wanted a worker. In Sheffield in the 1980s I found work. I'm amazed, with what I'm told is an army of people unable to find work, that none of them seem to phone me. I saw a job advertised on the counter of the Co-op in Marchwood. I phoned and told a customer of mine in Marchwood whose daughter was "unable to find work". She told her daughter while I was on the phone that the job was on offer and that she should get down there. Two days later she asked her daughter how it had gone and was told "I looked on the internet and there was nothing about it" - she hadn't even gone in. It's easy to be "unable to work" if that's the way you deal with a job opportunity placed firmly in front of you. Rather than seeing it through the prism of your opinions, judge that case on its merits - it's abominable. I never expected jobs to come to me. Why do they? Vin PS, as for that article, they should get on the phone to people like me. Phone enough companies and someone will employ you for your gumption in having phoned. I would.
