Poverty

[DIDO.1 22,639]

As we head towards a general election we keep hearing about/being told about poverty, austerity and how people are struggling....we are fed this diet by media and every party except the conservatives....ie these assertions are aimed at the nasty rich Tories.

 

I just don't see it. I grew up on a council estate. I'm a rat catcher. I've been a labourer really most of my life. But I really believe Iv never had it better. I, we, can be or do anything we want to be. Go anywhere we want.

 

My mum has been a low paid care worker most of her life and a mill worker before that, shes now a pensioner and has no concerns, gets enough to live on.

 

My sister was a single parent, brought up her daughter on benefits and is being given every help in getting back to work.

 

Any use we have had of the NHS has been brilliant, certainly better than when I had an accident 20 years ago.

 

I'm only late thirties yet when my dad was a kid they lived in real poverty, just after the war. Mother's expected to have babies die, kids knew real hunger....it was a different world. We are just so lucky. I went to a local council school in our big village/small town, every kid I grew up with either has a trade, good job, has kids and home supplied by government or one died of heroin through HIS life choices. I don't see anyone who has fallen through the net and is in poverty because of economy or government.

 

Every business I visit, and it can be numerous each day, are booming....flat out.

I know some areas are deprived but on the whole kids have iPhones, people are fat from over eating and it's a time of growth. The only bad period I ever remember was under labour, I lived in hunt Kennels and didn't know if I had a future. I left (circumstances not hunt ban) was told we needed wagon drivers so got trained up before seeing wages tumble as EU workers flooded over, mandelson and Blair sending out search parties for migrants. I know the Tories are also useless on immigration but the left positively revel in it!

 

Am I missing something? Or am I and everyone I work with, grew up with and come across just lucky?

[jacknife 2,005]

Same here business is booming life is good

 

I read these horror stories about the NHS yet when I needed A & E last year I was in sorted and out in no time

 

Many of those who say they live in poverty need to get their priorities sorted first

[terryd 8,394]

going by the living the dream thread every one is doing ok. I don't know any one that's really poverty stricken and even folks who never seem to work are doing ok lol. Saying that not many are loaded mind and just tick over. There is a noticeable slump in spending going on though with businesses and lots of smaller ones are closing down at least around here

Edited May 3, 2017 by terryd

[kanny 20,501]

I know exactly where you are coming from I was thinking a similar thing the other day and I come from a very similar background to you.

 

I had a couple years back when I was starting out on my own with a new family that were really hard we never had a pot to piss in but with some hard work I've ended up in a fairly decent position nothing grand but I'm happy... When times were tough I'd do any work going I worked for a tenner a day some days coz a tenner was better than nothing .. I had my air gun and fed the kids on rabbit and swapped rabbits for veg with a old fella of the allotment... Can't imagine today's lot doing that lol.. This was 1988/89 after the yuppie crash....seems people think that they are owed a existence nowadays.

[pesky1972 5,220]

On the whole folks have never had it so good yet whinge and complain about everything more than ever. f**k knows how most would cope in a real crisis.

[Kay 3,709]

I think poverty is down to what you put as priority, whether your in employment or on some kind of benefit , people using food banks because they pay out at places like brighthouse, these carpet companys where you pay a tenner a week , renting tv's washers , fridges freezers etc , add that along with a 500 quid studio account & that pretty much takes all there money , so there is none left for food

[neems 2,406]

People are spoilt and have their priorities wrong,if they have more cash thrown at them they'll just get slightly more spoilt.

 

I think it goes right the way to the very basics,people think tradition is pointless when in fact for the most part it's accumulated knowledge.

[DogMan85 722]

It was on the radio the other day about young lasses missing school when they're on the rag because they can't afford the sanitary towels, fcuking crazy.

 

To me that's either bad parenting or the kids don't want to go to school because they are feeling a bit off.

[jukel123 7,957]

'A self made man? Yes, and one who generally worships his creator.' (William Cowper.)

[Nik_B 3,790]

The word poverty used in this country is a total insult to people in real poverty, of course it's typical leftist tactics to encourage a feeling victimhood which they have exploited for decades. It's easy to feel hard done by as we can only compare our own life experiences to what we've had before so an easy trap to fall in to.

 

I've seen things that made me feel ashamed about complaining about my own situation, I was driving through the desert to a rig once, it was a sh*thole on the edge of a town called Hassi Messoud in Algeria, big bags and rubbish everywhere. I thought I was driving through a rubbish tip when I came upon one of those big yellow American school buses parked at the side of a dirt road, I slowed down and to my amazement out spilled about 20+ kids, in to this dump and off they ran....I had to look really hard to see that all this rubbish were actually huts made out of corrugated steel and other rubbish.

 

The poorest people in this country are probably among the top 1% of the world, hard to believe the way some carry on.

[j j m 6,537]

poverty is no good to any one

[DIDO.1 22,639]

I think poverty is down to what you put as priority, whether your in employment or on some kind of benefit , people using food banks because they pay out at places like brighthouse, these carpet companys where you pay a tenner a week , renting tv's washers , fridges freezers etc , add that along with a 500 quid studio account & that pretty much takes all there money , so there is none left for food

....yeah that's it. Sky TV, phone, flags, feeding the staffie all adds up

[WILF 46,684]

And yet, in society awash with money......food banks exist and what's more they can't keep up with demand.

That is disgusting.

[jukel123 7,957]

Wilf, hallefuckineulah. For once I agree with you on a non -football related thread! Praise the lord!

Edited May 3, 2017 by jukel123

[Nik_B 3,790]

The problem is you have people who are encouraged to think they're in poverty and look to the government for help and wont help themselves. Food out of a packet costs way way more, people who don't work have no excuse not to look for bargains and cook from scratch, when the likes of Jamie Oliver (I don't particularly like him but his message was sound) criticized people for not cooking cheap meals over packet rubbish he was slaughtered by the lefties.

 

When I cook I aim for £1-£1.5 per portion, we are lucky not to have to scrimp but I still want good meals for cheap...why waste money? It is very doable and with the internet we can get recipes for cheap meals easily.

 

There's plenty of poor people who manage but they rarely get any credit for it, all we hear are the hopeless & lazy moaning looking for more handouts.

 

You should talk to my missus she had to deal with those kinds of peopel and virtually all of them smoked, drank, took drugs and were shitty parents...I know there are some people who have fallen on their luck and they deserve all the help they should get but I don't think they're the majority of the 'poverty stricken'