[MA]

I remember school training me for a future in a job market that ceased to exist the very moment I graduated.

Have you heard us called the "lost generation" yet?

yeah i think i've heard that, i'm not sure.

i remember my job-seeking training at school was "look for a job, find out what qualifications/experience is necessary, earn said qualifications/experience, get job". basically. the problem is there aren't enough jobs, and people aren't dying any quicker.

I would say that the other side of it, the people paying the taxes that provide "jobseekers" with the money that they live off of, is closer to slave labor. They basically work a certain amount of days every week as your personal slave with absolutely no benefit to them for having done so. Can you not see how they would be fed up with that, and want to find a way to force you to do something that you find unpleasant for you to continue getting their money? This isn't magic money. It comes from people. This is other people's money.

Edit: I don't want to give the impression that I think jobless benefits are a bad thing. They can be very necessary. However, after a certain amount of time, you just have to throw your hands up and say "This person isn't trying hard enough," and do something about it. Two years is an extraordinary amount of time to be looking for work. In my mind, it is an unreasonable amount of time. I would lower it. By a lot. Basically, I could see one year being fair in some situations, but six months is probably closer to what it should be. Especially if you have ever spent a dime of this money on entertainment, and not on necessities, or on purchases that may help you find employment. Like a car, or more professional looking clothing.

first off, no one can 'live off' jobseekers. mother of christ, you really don't realise how fucking stupid you sound. jobseekers is like, £30-£50 a week, but the amount you receive isn't fixed anyway. it's based on all sorts of other shit too, like your age, employment history, even qualifications if need be etc. so it can end up being less than 30, or more than 50, or whatever. you can't survive off that alone, believe me. convert it into dollars or something and realise how fucking obtuse your whole "they live off jobseekers taxpayers pay their monies let's sentence them to hard labour, with pay. that way it isn't wrong in the slightest. yessirreebob" argument really is.

my point being with all that, jobseekers is not something you can survive off. you need more income than that. there are other varied benefits and schemes to help people along. you don't know the half of it. you don't even know a quarter of it, man. it shows.

secondly, "this person isn't trying hard enough" doesn't apply to people who are genuinely trying to get a job (how the fuck could they be 'not trying hard enough' if they are genuinely trying? PUSH HARDERRRR) but just aren't being accepted by said jobs, when they actually find said jobs.

it's like fishing, you don't know what's underneath the water so you just try. sometimes you snag something, most of the time you ponder about suicide. when you do snag something, and it isn't an old boot, you have a new set of hurdles with the interviews and shit. it's like an endurance race where only the very elite and/or lucky get through to their dream job of working at fucking KFC. personally i've only ever had two interviews in my life, which were both with previous employers. they were both very informal, and it was basically "can you do the job? great! we'll find out." and i got the job. since then i haven't even been accepted for job interviews by anyone, and yet i'm still applying. i just can't get through the crowds. i even have a car. what the fuck is going on, OANST? why does your argument make no sense? where is my fucking job?

also fuck you with the whole "if you have no work you should not entertain yourself and pay only for necessities". okay, i'll cut myself off from the world but still somehow keep applying for jobs because that's good lol (wouldn't that be easier to do with internet connection? i'm just saying an ISP is not a necessity, therefore by your rule we shouldn't have it, and you are talking shit) and just go absolutely batshit fucking fruitloop crazy and massacre everyone in this entire fucking hostel. i mean that's why i'm living in a hostel in the first place, i have no job and no money. and fuck you again.

That's probably the smartest thing I've seen him say.

Edit: Let me put it this way: When Stephanie and I moved back in October, we discovered that our neighbors did not have jobs. They started coming over while I was at work, and asking for things. It started small. A ride to the store. A cigarette. Things like that. But it kept growing. Now when given a ride to the store, they wanted us to buy them a little bit of food. Then we would have to wait for them to go shopping. One day, I came home from work, and got in the shower. When I went to wash my hair, I found that the shampoo was missing. I called out to Steph, and when she came in, I asked where the shampoo was. She just kind of made a face. I said "Rose wanted it, didn't she." That got a nod. The day before this, they had gotten us to drive them up to the store to buy beer. I walked over to their house as soon as I was dressed, and sat down with both of them. I told them to never, ever ask myself or Stephanie for anything ever again. I explained to them that they can keep the fucking shampoo, but that's it. You don't get to force me to use a bar of soap on my hair because you think being drunk is more important than being clean. This is how I feel about anyone who is on "the dole" using that money for anything besides surviving, or getting a job. You are stealing from me, and I would like it to fucking stop. I don't spend all day jerking off to the internet, or drinking myself into oblivion, doing the absolute minimum to scrape by. I work. That's my money that you're using to watch television with. That's my money that bought you that dvd. That's my money that you used for that book, or that internet connection, or that burger that you got from McDonalds. You are stealing from me, and every other person in your country, and someone should beat the dog shit out of you for it. That's my take on the situation.

where's that tiny violin? and that tiny violinist?

basically let's alienate and pile the social, moral and just plain old-fashioned peer pressure on those wretched fucks who are all obviously drunk, wife-beating, drug-addled, thieving dirty little shitbags who can't be arsed to work. let's huddle round and kick them to death.

I do agree that the system is flawed, but that doesn't make it inherently wrong. And social security is not the same thing as this. You will use all that money in your elderly years as long as you live long enough to see them. You will use that money and more. This money is money paid to you by working people so that you can survive, and find employment. Anything beyond that is entitlement theft, in my opinion.

ololololololol YOU ARE TAKING TAXPAYERS MONEY

YOU MUST USE THAT MONEY WISELY, AS IT WAS TAXPAYERS, AND THEY WON'T BE HAPPY

IT HOLDS GREAT POWER, MY SON

how about: it's the fucking governments money? does that make a little more sense to you? tax goes on all sorts of shit, not just goddamn unemployment benefits. do you think they had friggin jobseekers in the 12th century? yet we still had taxes. like our national security/armed forces, for one. we, the people, happily fund them and a multitude of other governmental organisations via taxes because they protect us and our country, and allow us to live in relative peace. but tax pays many things. don't be silly. don't treat us like we're silly. everyone stop being silly.

money goes up, and we're just the drones at the very bottom, therefore every single penny we spend on whatever, it doesn't matter what, get's filtered back through the same system in the end. like fucking rain on the mountain, except uphill, back to the fat cats. how the fuck hasn't that business you have a hand in gone bust yet with you pulling random levers and pressing buttons? give me your job.

And yes, I don't think you've tried hard enough. I'm sorry. But I truly believe that if you put the energy into getting a job that you put into your entertainment pursuits that you would have one, and this conversation wouldn't be happening.

Edit: So forcing employers to pay wages that will put them out of business to people who have no discernible skills for jobs that take no discernible skills to perform is the answer? That seems unlikely. If the reason you aren't getting a job is because you don't think jobs pay well then you truly are scum, and the fact that you're still alive is proof that the system is broken.

I like how you present the idea of "anecdotal" as meaning that it doesn't apply. It does apply. These people exist. By the hundreds of thousands. And yes, I was outraged that I had to go without for someone who doesn't lift a finger to help themself.

aww. poor you.

also i like how you say "But I truly believe that if you put the energy into getting a job that you put into your entertainment pursuits that you would have one, and this conversation wouldn't be happening" as if the 'conversation' had to happen. as if you were the one who was meant to do it. as if anyone gives a fuck about your opinions when you're being so openly judgmental and actually pretty dense when you don't even fucking live here. but you carry on preaching, obviously you have a firm grasp on the situation and can dictate to others how it should be and how they should act and what they should do and scold them if they dare do otherwise. pretty good for someone living on another continent.

Holy shit. I just looked at the U.K's unemployment numbers. It's 6.9%. The unemployment rate in Michigan is over 7%, but even higher where I live. When looking for a second job, I had three offers within a week. I had these offers because of my work ethic. When I take a shitty job, I excel at it. I show up early. I stay late. I work harder and longer than other people in the same position, because I want that all important good reference. If a job is hard, I work harder until I get good at it.

Joe, you had a job. You left that job because you thought it was too hard.

i work harder. i push harder. i have back ache.

you preach like you're the only motherfucker ever to bend over backwards for their job. wake up, millions of other people have done the same and still do, and some to a greater extent.

and did you miss the part about statistics being adjusted to best suit whatever the adjustee wants to show? did you know 87238% of statistics slid out of your anus? out of 234 people asked.

you can make numbers show you anything statistically, that's the wonderful magic of mathematics.

It's not always easy, and some people genuinely do have a tough time finding work. Some people don't interview well. There are programs that you can look at that help with this, but the bottom line is this.... It is always easier to get a job when you already have one. Get creative. Take the shittiest job you can find. Leave no stone unturned.

do you think people haven't tried that, and aren't still trying that? you're like the guy who stops the world for an important announcement and says "we should water Africa, that way we can grow stuff" and entire nations just shake their heads while a few scientists go ahead and put a fucking bullet through their cranium because they just gave up on humanity.

you're that guy.