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List The Benefits You Receive. Can the state afford them?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH
HAMISH_MCTAVISH Posts: 28,592 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
edited 5 October 2010 at 1:14PM in Debate House Prices & the Economy
And how do you justify them?

As for me.....

I don't get Benefits or Tax Credits of any kind. I have never claimed a day of unemployment or any other state subsidy in my life. I was even privately educated as a child.

I don't use the NHS, the education system, or any other elective government services beyond statutory requirements such as DVLA and Passport Office, which are pay-per-use anyway.

I already pay more in taxes than 99% of the population, and use less in services than 99% of the population. The state makes a significant profit from me living here.

And yet bizarrely, those who do not work as hard as I do, who do not contribute to society as much as I do, and who do not take responsibility for providing for themselves as I do, expect me to pay more to subsidise them further?

Alrighty then.....

I suggest benefits of any kind should be reserved for the very poor, the very needy, or the very sick. By all means, I'm happy for their benefits to be increased. Particularly from the money we'll save by eliminating paying benefits to the middle classes who clearly don't need them.

If you're capable of working, the only benefits you receive should be a minimal short term safety net to recover from loss of job or illness. Let those be generous.... Let them be more generous than they are today. But let them be limited so that the amount you take out over a lifetime is no more than the amount YOU put in. I'm guessing around 4 years of eligibility per adult per lifetime would be about right.

Beyond that? Nothing.

Other than perhaps a dormitory bed and access to a soup kitchen and job centre. We won't let people starve or freeze to death, no matter how lazy or f eckless they may be. But we can't continue to enable the lazy and f eckless to be that way forever.

And for the love of god stop this nanny state, champagne socialist, middle class wealth redistribution nonsense we have now. Get rid of ALL middle class benefits and tax credits. Reduce the amount they pay in tax instead, and save the administrative costs of the state taking with one hand and giving back with another.

Get rid of free bus passes, winter fuel allowances, and state pensions for the well off. We don't need them, we won't miss them, and we don't deserve to have them.

And start treating benefits the way they are supposed to be.

Benefits should be a short term helping-hand-up, not a permanent hand-out.

A safety net, not an entitlement.

It's time to slash and burn our way through the benefits system, and make people that can pay their own way do so.

We can't afford not to.
“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

-- President John F. Kennedy”
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Comments

  • markeymark
    markeymark Posts: 571 Forumite
    well said m8
  • FATBALLZ
    FATBALLZ Posts: 5,146 Forumite
    Hmm, I agree with the sentiment but 'middle class' benefits make up a very small proportion of the overall pie and the problem with paying only to those who "can't work" is that it's not easy to tell who genuinely can't work and who is just putting it on.
  • davilown
    davilown Posts: 2,303 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    And how do you justify them?

    As for me.....

    I don't get Benefits or Tax Credits of any kind. I have never claimed a day of unemployment or any other state subsidy in my life. I was even privately educated as a child.

    I don't use the NHS, the education system, or any other elective government services beyond statutory requirements such as DVLA and Passport Office, which are pay-per-use anyway.

    I already pay more in taxes than 99% of the population, and use less in services than 99% of the population. The state makes a significant profit from me living here.
    And why should you be any different to anyone else in the country?
    30th June 2021 completely debt free…. Downsized, reduced working hours and living the dream.
  • I already pay more in taxes than 99% of the population, and use less in services than 99% of the population. The state makes a significant profit from me living here.

    Why not become a tax-exile then?
  • DKLS
    DKLS Posts: 13,461 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    A big fat zero in benefits, just the way I like it, I prefer to support myself through my endeavours. Still grates when I see how much tax I am paying out though, If for any reason I had to claim jobseekers my mother would beat me senseless with disgust.
  • HAMISH_MCTAVISH
    HAMISH_MCTAVISH Posts: 28,592 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Why not become a tax-exile then?

    I don't object to paying taxes, and I'm quite happy for taxes to support those who are genuinely needy through misfortune, injury or illness.

    I do object to the taxes I pay being wasted on people who are clearly able to support themselves.
    “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

    Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

    -- President John F. Kennedy”
  • HAMISH_MCTAVISH
    HAMISH_MCTAVISH Posts: 28,592 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    davilown wrote: »
    And why should you be any different to anyone else in the country?

    Who said I should?
    “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

    Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

    -- President John F. Kennedy”
  • lostinrates
    lostinrates Posts: 55,283 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    edited 5 October 2010 at 2:10PM
    I do use the NHS now. Its ok. Despite the hatred of other systems IME I'd get better healthcare FOR ME elsewhere, state and private.

    I use the public highways.

    I get my bins taken once a fortnight...well, should do, haven't had one correct collection yet...next time the woman from the council is phoning to see if momentously it happens how it should. I also drive myself to a recycling facility contracted to the the council to...recycle.

    I went to university and paid a contribution to my time there....the rest obviously still supported by the tax payer. And a year of state education before that, free to me (at point of use).

    All of this is paid for communally by some who get worse use of it and some who get better. I'm sure there is more.

    edit: customs/Immigration, and dvla, royal mail.
  • Graham_Devon
    Graham_Devon Posts: 58,560 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    And how do you justify them?

    As for me.....

    I don't get Benefits or Tax Credits of any kind. I have never claimed a day of unemployment or any other state subsidy in my life. I was even privately educated as a child.

    I don't use the NHS, the education system, or any other elective government services beyond statutory requirements such as DVLA and Passport Office, which are pay-per-use anyway.

    I already pay more in taxes than 99% of the population, and use less in services than 99% of the population. The state makes a significant profit from me living here.

    And yet bizarrely, those who do not work as hard as I do, who do not contribute to society as much as I do, and who do not take responsibility for providing for themselves as I do, expect me to pay more to subsidise them further?

    Goody for you.

    I don't use them either.

    But it's not exactly a choice if you use them in many cases is it.

    I might use the NHS one day, I might use them a lot. Though I'd prefer not to.
  • LilacPixie
    LilacPixie Posts: 8,052 Forumite
    I get child benefit, well husband does.
    I use NHS being pregnant appoitment every 4 weeks plus pelvis is twisting so fortnightly physio. Come early 2011 I will give birth in a NHS hospital.
    My oldest gets 15 hours funded preschool education.
    Usual binmen/street sweepers/emergency services. If my house went of fire i'd call 999 not try douse the flames with a garden hose.
    We have 2 cars so we get the 'benefit' of pothole free roads well supposadly
    Both kids have swimming lessons in council run pool, don't know if the charge covers full cost or if part funded in some way
    I am 'entitled' to £190 for being pregnant
    Pregnant so free perscriptions and dentist, eyetest free in Scotland anyway

    Probably loads more.
    MF aim 10th December 2020 :j:eek:
    MFW 2012 no86 OP 0/2000 :D
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