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Guest rant: fuck you in the ass you cowardly shitmongers, I'm not responsible

Started by Cain, January 22, 2009, 04:44:20 PM

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Cain

Admittedly, the title is mine, but the rest is someone else:

Quote from: http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2009/01/22/this-crisis-is-not-the-blitz/What's going on right now is not the Blitz, and nor is it a national plague resulting from our laziness and incompetence. In some ways, the rhetoric of economic responsibility is reassuring; we are individually powerful enough to affect whether or not we sink or swim as a nation.

But what if you have no economic clout whatsoever? I certainly don't. There is, in a practical sense, absolutely nothing you can do to stop or reverse the recession, other than trust Gordon Brown and James Purnell and their captain-of-industry mates - who helped cause this mess in the first place, which is rather important.

People on the ground with virtually no money at all are being held responsible for macroeconomic decisions made by the ultra-rich and/or frighteningly powerful.

In his recent speech on the welfare reform White Paper, Wee Jamie "Lie-detectors for the unemployed" Purnell quoted Herbert Morrison: "We have no...resources to fritter away on those who don't contribute to our national effort". He spoke at length about not "wasting talent". This plan, by the way, is fully endorsed by Purnell's shadow counterpart and the Tory party, though not by the Labour back-bench.

I'd like to talk about talent, and waste. I'm currently wasting my life, my talent, and my national effort. The reason for this is not because I'm on benefits, or because I'm underqualified: I'm an Oxford Honours graduate, able-bodied, fast-learning, and more than willing to do anything that comes along.

I can't get a job. I haven't been able to get a job for six months, and was recently rejected for work as a domestic cleaner at a London university, despite meeting the qualifications and having done the same job elsewhere.

This is not because the means to get people back to work aren't there, or because I'm having such a stunning time on £45 a week. It's because there really aren't many jobs, because no-one can afford to hire.

This is not my fault, and neither is it the fault of anyone else in my position, or any of the small businesses or academic institutions to which I've applied. There aren't any jobs because there's no money to pay the employees with, and the responsibility lies somewhere.

It lies with non-domiciled, unspeakably rich British citizens who avoid taxes, it lies with their domiciled (but also obscenely wealthy) brethren in this country right now, and with the corporations and the governments who support them.

This new White Paper brings into law the requirement for people on benefits for more than two years to go into full-time work for their stipend, and the money saved by the government to be given to the private firms. Let me repeat that in words that aren't disgusting lies.

For the small amount of money that is the more than fair for people out of work, especially in the current economic climate, people will be required to work, for less than the minimum, let alone living, wage, for corporate institutions. Who will be paid for the privilege. These corporate institutions include Wal-Mart, who now have a foothold in this country with their ASDA stores to go with what can only be described as their abominable human rights record.

There is complicity here, and responsibility, and both belong to those with political power and economic clout, which are, as ever, more or less synonymous. You are not responsible (unless you're James Purnell, Gordon Brown, or the director of a major company), and I am not responsible.

The masses didn't do this. Your taking out a loan did not do this. Olive paninis, unnecessary car journeys or expecting a decent wage did not do this. There are people who did, through malice, incompetence or unspeakably cold and morally bankrupt long term plans.

Don't let them tell you you're responsible. This is not the Blitz. There are reasons, and many of them can be found on our own soil. All of them have frightening bank balances. And their callous reapportioning of blame to everyone but themselves is cowardly.

East Coast Hustle

Rabid Colostomy Hole Jammer of the Coming Apocalypse™

The Devil is in the details; God is in the nuance.


Some yahoo yelled at me, saying 'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH', and I thought, "I'm feeling generous today.  Why not BOTH?"

VIDEODROME

The experiments will continue...    film at 11.

Cramulus

:mittens:

it just makes you sicker and sicker until you can't take it anymore

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Right now, my main hope is that when I am forced to default on my loan, that the lenders will not have the resources to foreclose, so I will be able to continue living here and defending it by force.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Pope Lecherous

That's why these massive stimulus checks wont work.  Besides people at the corporate level using the money for their own benefit vice creating jobs, the stimulus checks doled out to the average citizen only helps ward off the bill collectors until the next late payment.  The shit situation remains the same and people in similar positions to Cain's friend have to find another 2x4 to float on before they succumb to the same fate as leonardo dicaprio.  :argh!:
--- War to the knife, knife to the hilt.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

IMO what the government should have done is identified at-risk homeowners and bought out their loans, dropping the interest rate to something like 3%, rolling back payments into the loan, and giving each homeowner a 3 month payment respite to help them catch up. If they'd timed this to take place around October or November, the stupid growth-based economic system would probably have seen a strong Christmas season, staving off the inevitable eventual collapse for a few more years. It even would have benefited the banking industry by taking their highest-risk loans off their hands.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Requia ☣

Clinton (Bill, not Hillary) tried to push a plan like that, I don't think anyone listened though.  Which is a pity, since it would have been a fuckton cheaper than the bailout, and probably more effective, even if some banks still collapsed.
Inflatable dolls are not recognized flotation devices.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."