Now Toil Like Chinese Peasants, Says Multi-Millionaire Jeremy Hunt

[PopGun]

Agree with the work better and smarter bit......but don't tar all single mothers with the same brush.....every single mother has a single father, in some cases the fathers are just as irresponsible as the mothers, in fact some fathers expect the state to pay for the upbringing of the kids sometimes by several mothers that they brought into the world....

Very many single mums and dads are working full time and supporting their kids solo.....a job not everyone could or would do.

?

[Bear Goggles]

There’s a pretty difficult question that we have to answer, which is essentially: are we going to be a country which is prepared to work hard in the way that Asian economies are prepared to work hard, in the way that Americans are prepared to work hard? And that is about creating a culture where work is at the heart of our success.”

Rather than house prices? Well, that is radical.

I guess that means that we'll need to stop HtB, and QE immediately, and stop bailing out failing financial institutions so we can return to a culture where work is related to success, rather than one's ability to receive benefits, eh Jeremy?

We could even reduce income tax, and shift at least some of the burden of taxation onto inherited wealth, land or assets rather than being taxed on hard graft?

Oh wait, no sorry. Let's concentrate on cutting benefits for the low paid, so they can experience the same incentives as a peasantry subjected to 60 years of communist rule. Yes, that will do it.

[slow hand clap]

[byron78]

Rather than house prices? Well, that is radical.

I guess that means that we'll need to stop HtB, and QE immediately, and stop bailing out failing financial institutions so we can return to a culture where work is related to success, rather than one's ability to receive benefits, eh Jeremy?

We could even reduce income tax, and shift at least some of the burden of taxation onto inherited wealth, land or assets rather than being taxed on hard graft?

Oh wait, no sorry. Let's concentrate on cutting benefits for the low paid, so they can experience the same incentives as a peasantry subjected to 60 years of communist rule. Yes, that will do it.

[slow hand clap]

This is brilliant.

[winkie]

....anway I see QE and HTB only helping/subsidising the financial and building industry....not you or I.

[CunningPlan]

It is really a catch 22. Colleague of mine (single mum, always worked, often three jobs) said that she would struggle with Christmas this year.

She currently works 34 hours but there is more on offer if she wanted the extra. She pointed out that she only gets to keep 22% of whatever additional wages she earns. I cannot blame her for deciding that working for around £2 per hour is not an inviting prospect.

I don't know what the answer is.

[winkie]

It is really a catch 22. Colleague of mine (single mum, always worked, often three jobs) said that she would struggle with Christmas this year.

She currently works 34 hours but there is more on offer if she wanted the extra. She pointed out that she only gets to keep 22% of whatever additional wages she earns. I cannot blame her for deciding that working for around £2 per hour is not an inviting prospect.

I don't know what the answer is.

All I know is high rate tax payers wouldn't do it....they would moan and wail....but plenty expect those with far less to do it.

Edited October 6, 2015 by winkie

[interestrateripoff]

It's worse than that.

All making single parents go out to work a few hours more for low wages is going to achieve is... a higher childcare bill.

The state takes £50 WTC from parents working 16-24hrs with one hand, and then offers them £130 toward childcare costs with the other.

Deliberately thick?

Would have to agree.

But a great way to boost GDP by government spending, whilst claiming to get people back in work.

[wonderpup]

The problem with this whole 'competitiveness' meme is that you end up in the position where the only way to win the game is to lose it- Hunt's long term vision is of a Britain where people work long hours for low pay while state support is cut back to bone.

Let's be generous and assume that this plan works- and as a result Britain is now one of the most competitive nations on the planet- now what? Do we all go to our bosses and ask for a pay rise? No- that won't work because if pay started to rise what would happen to that hard won competitive edge? it would be lost.

The truth is that Hunt's vision of our future is actually a counsel of despair for most people- his idea is that we gain increased market share of global trade by impoverishing ourselves and becoming a nation of 'busy fools' working long hours for low pay- but even if this worked almost all the benefits would flow to a relative handful at the top, those who own the business's or the assets linked to the value of those business's.

A strategy that sacrifices the living standards of a large part of the population to gain global market share is not a solution to poverty, on the contrary it's a strategy in which the impoverishment of that population is an essential requirement. So poor pay and long hours are not simply the means here- they are the end. A workforce of poorly paid people who have no escape into welfare provision and no recourse to industrial action is the resource that Hunt and Co. are in the business of creating.

[SillyBilly]

Did you actually read the article? He has a second job because he has four children through a series of different women. If you want to do that, I don't think it's such a great thing, though it is your choice. However, the idea that someone else should pay for it, is absurd.

Yes, that he supposedly pays $400 for, he still has to work 2 jobs regardless. Like I said, going to the States a lot I meet a lot of people in this situation regardless of if they have kids or not. Who said someone else should pay for it, I'd like to think his day job could pay him more, scary socialism I know...

[Agentimmo]

The truth is that Hunt's vision of our future is actually a counsel of despair for most people-

Indeed, but in the UK electoral system of FPTP , Hunt and his ilk only need to keep 30% of the population on their side with false promises and threats of what could happen if the miracle economy is derailed. The other 70% can.....well, you know the rest.

[stormymonday_2011]

The problem with this whole 'competitiveness' meme is that you end up in the position where the only way to win the game is to lose it- Hunt's long term vision is of a Britain where people work long hours for low pay while state support is cut back to bone.

Let's be generous and assume that this plan works- and as a result Britain is now one of the most competitive nations on the planet- now what? Do we all go to our bosses and ask for a pay rise? No- that won't work because if pay started to rise what would happen to that hard won competitive edge? it would be lost.

The truth is that Hunt's vision of our future is actually a counsel of despair for most people- his idea is that we gain increased market share of global trade by impoverishing ourselves and becoming a nation of 'busy fools' working long hours for low pay- but even if this worked almost all the benefits would flow to a relative handful at the top, those who own the business's or the assets linked to the value of those business's.

A strategy that sacrifices the living standards of a large part of the population to gain global market share is not a solution to poverty, on the contrary it's a strategy in which the impoverishment of that population is an essential requirement. So poor pay and long hours are not simply the means here- they are the end. A workforce of poorly paid people who have no escape into welfare provision and no recourse to industrial action is the resource that Hunt and Co. are in the business of creating.

Hunt has made a lot of money from his businesses but he started from a position of social advantage like so many of his ilk so any risks he took came with a f*cking great safety net. Making a pile after being at Charterhouse and Magdelen College Oxford is not quite the same as making it from Bash Street School Stoke on Trent

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Hunt

I think we should take all Jeremy Hunts money away and stick him on a working class estate in Stockton On Tees so he can show us how it is done the hard way. That way all the proles will be able to witness first hand the merits of work.

Edited October 6, 2015 by stormymonday_2011

[Bear Goggles]

Indeed, but in the UK electoral system of FPTP , Hunt and his ilk only need to keep 30% of the population on their side with false promises and threats of what could happen if the miracle economy is derailed. The other 70% can.....well, you know the rest.

Whilst I'm pretty sure Jeremy Rhyming-Slang and his ilk really do believe the nonsense they spout, and the narrative of cracking down on lazy scroungers does play into the prejudices of their entitled 65+ voter base, I'm increasingly beginning to believe that the Tory high command do actually have an understanding of some of what needs to be done to make work pay again.

It's pretty obvious to anyone who looks at the figures that some of the biggest benefit recipients are pensioners and landlords, neither of whom generally represent the poorest in society right now. The Tax Payers' Alliance declaration today that the Tories don't need to be nice to the people who voted for them may be more prescient than we think. I don't think the fact that the total benefit cap is going to hit housing benefit hard is an unintended consequence, I think along with the BTL tax changes in the budget, this may be part of a concerted effort to unwind BTL.

The reason I picked on moving taxation away from work and onto inheritance and land in my previous post, was to highlight the fact that these are the things that I think the Tories hold as sacrosanct, ultimately they stand for the preservation of privilege and inherited wealth, but they do - in their guise as a newly popular nasty party - offer the ability to unwind leveraged BTL, and maybe even some of the more generous boomer benefits too. None of this is to diminish the real financial pain coming to some of the lowest paid workers in the country, or all of the steaming BS we will have to endure from the likes of Mr Rhyming Slang along the way, but we may just be witness to a slightly different set of policy objectives than the ones we think we are.

[Timak]

Hunt has made a lot of money from his businesses but he started from a position of social advantage like so many of his ilk so any risks he took came with a f*cking great safety net. Making a pile after being at Charterhouse and Magdelen College Oxford is not quite the same as making it from Bash Street School Stoke on Trent

Also helps when you can afford to have a huge range of business failures and when you can win government contracts just before being parachuted into a safe Tory seat. Oh and when the person awarding the contracts is your cousin (Virginia Bottomley) who also gives up her government seat allowing you to stand.

One of Hotcourses' biggest contracts is a deal to run a website for the British Council, promoting courses in the UK. The council is a quango sponsored by the Foreign Office to promote cultural and educational opportunities abroad. It is part-funded by government grants.

Hunt has insisted the success of Hotcourses came only after Elms and he had pursued a string of failed ventures. Among their false starts were a scheme to export marmalade to Japan, building children's playgrounds and a tourist guide idea. The two businessmen had also set up a political PR firm, Profile PR, later renamed Heckler, in the early 1990s.

Edited October 6, 2015 by Timak

[stormymonday_2011]

Also helps when you can afford to have a huge range of business failures and when you can win government contracts just before being parachuted into a safe Tory seat. Oh and when the person awarding the contracts is your cousin (Virginia Bottomley) who also gives up her government seat allowing you to stand.

One of Hotcourses' biggest contracts is a deal to run a website for the British Council, promoting courses in the UK. The council is a quango sponsored by the Foreign Office to promote cultural and educational opportunities abroad. It is part-funded by government grants.

Hunt has insisted the success of Hotcourses came only after Elms and he had pursued a string of failed ventures. Among their false starts were a scheme to export marmalade to Japan, building children's playgrounds and a tourist guide idea. The two businessmen had also set up a political PR firm, Profile PR, later renamed Heckler, in the early 1990s.

So effectively Hunt is as dependent on state handouts as those whom he presumes to lecture. Plus a lot of good old fashioned nepotism to smooth his way.

[tinker]

So effectively Hunt is as dependent on state handouts as those whom he presumes to lecture. Plus a lot of good old fashioned nepotism to smooth his way.

Aren't they all? Iain Duncan Smith...? Power - the ability to forget where you came from, whilst being in a position to tell everyone else how to live their lives,

[South Lorne]

So he wants people to work like those in America???

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/when-you-cant-afford-sleep/380128/

http://www.mensfitness.com/styleandgrooming/fashion/30-percent-of-american-workers-are-sleep-deprived

Everyone should be working more than one job and getting no sleep or family life.

...possibly the way forward....

Children starting school now could work to 100 and have 40 jobs

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/children-starting-school-now-could-work-to-100-and-have-40-jobs-a6683266.html

He said governments might have to embrace the policies adopted in Manitoba, Utrecht and Namibia where a “superdole” had been introduced – guaranteeing a minimum amount of earnings for everyone. “Everyone has a basic income,” he said. The result had been a reduction of violence – including domestic violence – in these areas.

Edited October 7, 2015 by South Lorne

[PopGun]

It is really a catch 22. Colleague of mine (single mum, always worked, often three jobs) said that she would struggle with Christmas this year.

She currently works 34 hours but there is more on offer if she wanted the extra. She pointed out that she only gets to keep 22% of whatever additional wages she earns. I cannot blame her for deciding that working for around £2 per hour is not an inviting prospect.

I don't know what the answer is.

Increasing corporate and inherited wealth/asset tax to >0 would be a start.

[Assume The Opposite]

Hunt and others must have a completely different view of society looking down below from a glass tower. They 'made it' and can't understand why everyone else can't do the same.

They seem incapable of looking at the bigger picture that all the decent paying jobs in the west went decades ago because of their own parties actions.

We have corporate welfare, tax avoidance, and tax cuts for the rich at the same time as cuts for the poor. That's not just class war. That's ethnic cleansing.

If effort determined wealth there would be a a lot of rich people in Africa and other countries who make the shit clothes we all wear.

[CunningPlan]

It would appear the Laffer curve only works at the top in their eyes.

Tax the higher paid more and they see no incentive to work. I would love to see what the curve says about the removal of benefits and incentivisation to work more hours for the lower paid.

Still don't know the solution BTW

[Maynardgravy]

It would appear the Laffer curve only works at the top in their eyes.

Tax the higher paid more and they see no incentive to work. I would love to see what the curve says about the removal of benefits and incentivisation to work more hours for the lower paid.

Still don't know the solution BTW

A lower cost of living.

[wish I could afford one]

It would appear the Laffer curve only works at the top in their eyes.

Tax the higher paid more and they see no incentive to work. I would love to see what the curve says about the removal of benefits and incentivisation to work more hours for the lower paid.

Still don't know the solution BTW

That's certainly my plan. Work hard now, pay ridiculous levels of tax as a PAYE worker and then ride off into the sunset asap leaving the UK to find the tax revenue and greater house price fool somewhere else.

[iamnumerate]

I think his views are a bit extreme but a country where people on benefits can spend £4K + on holidays is perhaps too much the other way.

[Assume The Opposite]

The truth is that Hunt's vision of our future is actually a counsel of despair for most people- his idea is that we gain increased market share of global trade by impoverishing ourselves and becoming a nation of 'busy fools' working long hours for low pay- but even if this worked almost all the benefits would flow to a relative handful at the top, those who own the business's or the assets linked to the value of those business's.

This is where TTIP and TPP would help to make this wet dream irreversible. We still have some rights and privileges left and this globalisation agenda is a race to the bottom.

People who foam at the mouth at benefit scroungers and handouts are attacking symptoms, not the cause.

I wouldn't be surprised if tax credits etc have been used to paper over huge inequalities and keeping the bottom of the population happy enough while wealth extraction has carried on with various ponzi schemes.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Assume The Opposite

[PopGun]

A lower cost of living.

Unfortunately for the last 36 years tptb seem to think the opposite.

i'm sure their vindication is just around the corner.

Edited October 7, 2015 by PopGun

[Big Orange]

This is where TTIP and TPP would help to make this wet dream irreversible.

Irreversible? Corporations are big and powerful, but like like whales they will get stranded on the dry seabed without the "sea" of moderately well off consumers and tax payers sustaining them until they got ruined.