Britney's Piers

And its the folks who, for the last 40 years decried the concept of altruism as evil and promoted self-interest as the highest of morals ideals, now wish to turn that tanker around on a dime and expect self sacrifice to come as natural from a population in which they've expediently cultivated the most radical forms of individualism. Whoops! That was silly wasn't it.

But this statement only covers one of those groups. The one conveniently least able to have a riot in protest over it.

You're forgetting before minimum wage we had unions with real power.

That was the job of unions and collective bargaining, which conveniently subsides with the introduction of min wage, TCs and the like.

Yes, when you offer a decent wage, you will find plenty of people to put the graft in. I think I should write a paper to inform mainstream economists and politicians of this revelation, it seems to have passed most of them by.

It's not the inequality itself, as there will always be inequality, but in the past it was defended with the orthodox theory that even if the gap widens at least everyone is seeing an increase in living standards and income, that capitalism is a rising tide floats all boats etc. However due to monetary policy since 2008 that theory is now broken and the rich are getting richer while the poor are staying static or getting even poorer. That is the thing that creates discontent.

Of course they deserve it, they almost fought in two world wars, you know.

Single and childless, you may as well settle into your matrix human battery pod now.

Well, I defer to your first hand knowledge. Apparently I have not crossed paths with one of these people, of whom there are so many. Although if it is possible it only supports the case for an affordable CI.

They either have kids, or they managed to get on the DLA which starts the avalanche of other benefits. In a few cases they are defrauding the system claiming under multiple NIs. Someone living on 71 GBP pw for years with nothing on the side? I don't believe it.

The real reason for workfare is to flush out the people claiming and doing cash in hand work. No one (childless) can claim JSA for years and survive on it without another income from somewhere, it is simply mathematically undoable and they know it, hence the workfare/daily sign on/etc.

I think this is a good insight. This made the rounds a few years ago. http://www.phimatrix.com/pepsi-arnell021109.pdf It cost 1 million dollars to produce. It is hustling, pure and simple. No different to running a game of Find The Lady on a street corner as far as I can see. It is happening to a lesser degree every day all over the place.

Half of all the people doing the "BS jobs" provide no value. The problem is, it's hard to tell which half.

Why have a fixed amount? Simply set the CI budget as a percentage of tax take for the year.

Nothing. The question you have to ask is, is the help to the genuine needy worth putting up with the few people who try it on (who will as you said, always exist whenever charity is given even after measures to stop them). Nothing is going to be 100% perfect.