Comment on Hunt warns of benefit cuts for people who won’t ‘actively look for work’
Mchugho@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The benefits system turned my father into a social pariah. He became reliant on the state and lost all independence. Damn right people abuse the system and it’s more than Hunt claims. I don care what you circlejerkers think because this is a lives reality for me.
coffee_poops@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Anecdotal evidence is not stronger than actual data. Your father became reliant on the state because the state paid a living wage and other jobs didn’t.
Mchugho@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You don’t know my dad so kindly keep your opinions to yourself about why he is in the situation he is.
I agree about anecdotes vs data, but in the absence of hard reliable data on this issue then that’s all we have to go on. Unless you fancy inventing a mind reading device we are never going to know if the money is going to where it is needed.
Social programs are needed, not throwing cash at addicts and the work shy and hoping they turn their lives round one day.
coffee_poops@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Social programs don’t go far enough. You can’t lift yourself out of poverty when you’re paid before the poverty line. People who need these resources can’t afford to lift themselves out of poverty.
Mchugho@lemmy.world 8 months ago
All I’m saying is that some of the welfare money that is currently being used to buy heroin or alcohol would be better off invested in mental health or back to work programs. I think when you criticise the methods of dishing out welfare, for some reason people think you want to kick people out on the streets and make them starve which is utter horse shit.
I’ve never denied that millions legitimately need the money and won’t spend it on coke and H. But throwing money at incredibly mentally ill people can result in a negative feedback loop whereby people become reliant on it and never work to improve their station.
The thing that may on the left won’t care to admit is that some people on the bottom rung of society don’t want to change. Whatever the reason for that may be, it’s a pervasive truth. They are comfortable in being uncomfortable. There are also those who have children for the extra benefits too and thus the cycle of poor education and poverty continues into the next generation.
Again when I say things like the above, I am no at implying this is even the majority of people who claim benefits. But there is this glamorisation of the extreme poor in the left that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny when you interact with a lot of these people.