-=> Quoting Rod Speed to Mick Howe <=-

 MH> Obviously the comments of someone who hasn't been
 MH> forced to confront the reality of todays labour market.
 
 RS> I think its just a TAD unlikely that those were the only jobs
 RS> that ever turned up in your town Mick. Yes, those particular
 RS> jobs may well be mostly suitable for kids working part time.

During that time the only local jobs listed at the CES were "Aboriginal 
Designated Positions" or for attendants in a womans refuge. In this Summer
Holiday town, you have to know the right people just to hear about the jobs
let alone actually have a chance to apply for them. Through the winter you 
might a well hibernate.

 RS> And lets not forge the considerable numbers who choose to MOVE to
 RS> places like the Sunshine Coast, where there is a considerable shortage
 RS> of jobs for people like that, who basically just find that the
 RS> standard of living on the dole there suits them fine and are happy to
 RS> bludge for as long as we are silly enough to keep handing the money
 RS> out. 

I agree that there are many bludgers out there who could easily be caught.
At the same time I don't see anything wrong with unemployed people moving to
somewhere that their dole will cover more than just the cost of rent and
heating. When there are only jobs for 10 - 20% of the unemployed what harm 
does it do for a few people to only go through the motions of looking for work
and making the most of what little they have, if nothing less it gives the 
serious job seekers a better chance. If they refuse work then persecute them
to the full extent of the law, then they can have a job, at the Long Bay Hilton

 RS> You could also try getting off your bum and
 RS> qualifying for better jobs than a KFC droid too.
 
I'd love to do something useful in the way of education, but all that is 
available here is mickey mouse time filler courses like introduction to
microcomputers course offered by the "local" TAFE College, where half the
class knows more than the tutor. If you want education you need to move
which takes money and if you are on the dole them you have already used up
your resourses before you qualify for it.

 RS> Yes, but there are STILL a VAST number of people starting new jobs.
 RS> So if you aint one of those, you should consider why THEY managed to.
Do you have any indepenant proof of this, all the figures I have seen show
that the number of people going off the dole is equal to the number of people
going onto government "make work" schemes, training cons oops programs etc.
and most of those are only run in major centres not in rural and coastal areas

 RS> Or you chose to loll on welfare instead of actually getting off
 RS> your bum and making yourself employable. A HELL of a lot do,
It would have been a lot easier for me to have moved to the city, lived in 
a cardboard box and got a job digging ditches except for a couple of minor 
points, 
1. I had to use up all the money I had before I qualified for the dole.
2. My dole would have been terminated for moving to an area of high
   unemployment.
3. Physical injuries from an industrial accident and a couple of motor
   cycle accidents have prevented me from doing serious labour for twenty
   years.
4. I couldn't carry my medications in a backpack, let alone everything else
   I would have needed.
5. I could never get myself together, physically and mentally to do it.

 MH> The termites did manage to eat well at least,
 MH> they ate the kitchen cupboards, then the floor.

 RS> If you didnt manage to get that stuff checked BEFORE you bought the
 RS> house... 
I didn't buy it, couldn't have afforded it even when I was earning good
money. It was the best I could afford to rent at the time and the landlord
was going to pull it down when I left, so no maintainence. 

 RS> its quite possible that what we are actually seeing with the
 RS> minimums that the unemployment rate gets to thru the economic
 RS> cycles increasing all the time is just more and more finding that
 RS> welfare provides an acceptible standard of living that they are
 RS> prepared to loll on for decades if we are silly enough to let them.
 
 MH> Or it could be that the base rate keeps rising because
 MH> technology is cutting out so many jobs with inadequate
 MH> replacements as was predicted by the computer industry in
 MH> the late 1960's, when I first started learning about computers,

 RS> Soorree, we KNOW that cant be true because the total number of people
 RS> IN work keeps increasing all the time. Yes, that stuff is certainly
 RS> happening, BUT the number of jobs keeps increasing even more anyway.
Pity the increase in REAL jobs hasn't kept up with the participation rate.

 MH> Pity the Luddites of the union movement and Govt burried their heads in
 MH> the sand and pretended the problems would never arise because they didn't
 MH> like the idea of change. Rational planning at that time could have led to
 MH> solutions / workarounds being in place and everybody gaining from automatio

 RS> Soorree, all that stuffs a complete wank. The current unemployment
 RS> rate has SFA to do with that. You might care to explain how the US
 RS> has an unemployment rate of only 5% if the problem is automation.
Minimal unionisation, weak unions, slave wages, negliable welfare system
and massive crime rate. If you can't get a job, go into business for yourself
mugging, burgling, drug trading etc. 

 MH> Instead all the unions or government can come up with is
 MH> to turn the country into a nation of waiters and bar staff,

 RS> Soorree, they amount to a tiny percentage of the total jobs.
When was the last time you went the joys of the CES programs for the long
term unemployed or even hear of them giving any support to the recently
unemployed. If you do have real information pass it on to the Batemans Bay
CES, the only programs they know about are for politicly correct minorities,
they ain't even interested in anyone else.


--- Blue Wave/OS2 v2.21