JW> Geez you lot.  Thanks for making me and all the other honestly
JW> unemployed people feel bloody guilty.  I have been on the dole now
JW> for several months because the company I used to work for decided
JW> it could do without its technical arm.  Am I a parasite even though
JW> I have put in an average 10 applications a week since my redundancy?

PE> No, it's crap.

You dont KNOW that, there are is fact quite a bit of evidence
of a parasite mentality, standing around with the hand out.

PE> I wonder how many of them would like to trade places with you.

Corse, plenty of those may well have put some effort into ensuring they
ARENT going to stay out of work for long, let alone spending all their
money so they have to put their hand out for the dole while they are working.

PE> I wonder how many of them would like to
PE> offer you a job instead of putting you down?

Not much evidence that he is the sort of person I
would employ myself. Presumably plenty of others have
felt that if he has been out of work for so long too.

PE> I wonder how many of them acknowledge that the taxes you
PE> paid whilst working go towards paying for your dole now?

Soorree, thats completely bogus. If everyone chooses to just put their
hand out when the inevitable happens, the taxes have to be a LOT higher
than if people make provision for the inevitable times out of work.

PE> I wonder how many acknowledge that the whole point of
PE> the dole is so that we can run an efficient capitalist
PE> society (as opposed to full-employment communism),

Soorree, it aint. If you want one of those you dont have ANY
dole, it make people try a lot harder to find work and are much more
prepared to take anything on offer, even if it isnt very attractive.

If you have no dole, they dont have any choice on making provision for
times out of work while working, and will try much harder to find work.

PE> and the dole is there as a safety net,

Yes, but there is a HELL of a difference between a real safety
net and people not bothering to make their own provision for the
inevitable times out of work coz they can just stick their hand out.

PE> so that no-one feels a need to stuff around with a
PE> working, capitalist system, which means better lifestyles
PE> for everyone, certainly for those with work anyway.

Or you could recognise that even HongKong with minimal social
safetynets doesnt get bloody revolution or 'stuffing around etc'

PE> The people on the dole also get a good lifestyle,
PE> if you put a value on your value free time.

They do indeed, and plenty essentially volunteer to live like that.

JW> Take a look around people.  There are only so many jobs available.

PE> Yeah,

Its crap, particularly if you include those who CREATE jobs.

PE> and the worst thought is you know that some people in jobs are
PE> sitting on their bums doing absolutely nothing, and for every
PE> year they sit their, they clock up a year of experience on their
PE> resume, whilst what do you get to clock up?  A year unemployment?

Sure, but thats a separate issue to whether it
makes any sense for us to be supporting parasites.

PE> On the other hand, there are a lot of non-genuinely-unemployed
PE> on the dole too, and they are simply criminals.

And there are plenty who dont try very hard to find work, like this one.
@EOT:

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