I am no political animal. Half the time I am not sure what I think or believe. But there are times when you have to state an opinion, even if that opinion is slammed down by many and makes you feel a little bit small!
My first Angry Aspie bugbear is family tax credits.....in my opinion, this is just a devious way for large corporations to avoid paying a living wage. Instead - the tax payers pay the salaries....we wouldn't want to lower anyone's profits would we??? I find it shocking that so many people rely so heavily on these meagre hand-outs. I have received them in the past because of being part of the low wage economy.
My argument is that if everyone who has worked for over five years received £20,000 + (excluding London) in their wages and an expectation of £40,000 per couple as a minimum, life could be a great deal easier all round. In most parts of the country, a small family could just about survive on this with one or two economies. They could though, spend more and drive cash back into our own economy instead of it being syphoned off by a tiny amount of people who spend most of their money abroad.
Now, having two people working in the family is great but what about childcare? My own childcare costs - this is for before and after school care - costs more than my mortgage. And the fees are due to rise again in April! This is because a once subsidised childcare outfit have had all the councils financial assistance removed! And these costs are cheap in comparison to others in different parts of the country.
So, this is going to drive more couples to decide that one parent will stay at home.....okay, so the upshot of this is that there will be a few jobs opening up for others...the down side is that our economy is likely to lose out on some really good people and put more pressure on the tax system to provide the shortfall in their income...guess how? Family tax credits....
It is well documented that the supermarkets are probably the worst offenders for offering low paid jobs. Considering the billions of pounds profit they make it seems ludicrous they are not made to pay their way. Okay, so you could argue that these awful establishments provide jobs in the areas they reside in. That would be great if these were 'real' jobs. In the main, they are a sham of part time hours often aimed at women or youngsters!
And of course, badly paid, part time work is more often than not the mainstay of a woman's economic pot. The assumption is still (in the twenty first century) that she is earning the 'pin money' whilst the high earning husband actually supports the family....well, pretty much that image is bollocks.
The reality of the situation is that some seriously well qualified people have to do menial jobs in order to tend to their offspring effectively. Not in the UK do we have free childcare! Again, this problem is often reserved for women. They are the ones left to juggle work and childcare. So, equality is only for the few it would appear.
The smokes and mirrors trickery used by large corporations and
governments to ease each other's lifestyles, only serves to ensure the
general population are kept in their lowly place.
To end my rant, I would like to ask exactly what sort of life style a hard working couple should expect...should they have to be economising to the point where they have no holidays, no satellite TV, poor quality food, poor quality clothing, badly maintained homes with damp and heating exclusions, no school trips for children, no family days out, no extras like sweets on a Saturday?? Why should people go out to work everyday to be told by much richer people that they might need to economise......? Wouldn't a lot of these workers be just as badly off on benefits...? I leave you with that.
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