Tommy Tiernan on social welfare

Comedians like to try and shock their audience by spouting absurd nonsense and pushing holes in social conventions etc.

There are, however, some people in most western societies who hate or fear other people so much that they find work an intolerable burden and prefer to stay on the dole rather than face into a days work or the effort involved in keeping down a job. Most employers would consider that these people cost more in extra supervision and extra oversight than their contribution to a companies output is worth. They avoid hiring them.

I am very lucky to be self employed and working at what I can do best with little or no office politics, comparison to other workers (what I do is almost unique), short hours, flexibility and a large number of clients. No one client can put me out of a job as such because I do not have any one client big enough to affect me in this way. I can always get a replacement quickly enough to avoid going into debt or losing too much earning opportunity.

I was on the dole for about 9 months at one stage and found it soul destroying.
There was however a government funded assistance group who assisted me in setting up my present self employment arrangement, assisted me in marketing and getting work and generally got me on my feet.

I found that SW were easy to deal with once you were straight up about your employment status, they arranged job tickets for me day by day when I was on benefit. I did not qualify for JSA as my wife was working and earning enough to put the family income too high and my own savings were also too high so that was out.

The fact that SW was not available and I had money to spare did mean I had to get out and hussle up work so it was not a bad thing. Governments sometimes have to be firm and careful with their money or most people would take the pi$$.

It is a very difficult balancing act for a government to form a proper set of rules to provide for people in genuine need yet keep the working taxpayer happy and motivated enough to stay working and developing themselves to earn more as their careers progress. Many employers find it hard to recruit senior staff or get existing staff to take promotion or educate themselves because of high marginal tax rates.

Y u no Linkey OP ?