Hand out generation (Grrr!)

TheSaint_2

I read an article in the local paper this morning. It was a sob story about a family that had two incomes, the mum lost the job and as a result the family can't afford to turn the heating on and buy food.


Mum has lost 2.5 stone and is at risk of a heart attack because of the stress.The standard bleading heart image of two kids sat in front of a bar heater with woolly hats on is on the front page.The article indicated that the family now relies on free food from the local food bank.Initially my thoughts were, how terrible that this can happen in our modern society and in this country with a welfare state.


It is only further on in the article that you read that this family has a working dad, who brings in £1400 per month (After tax).The family also spends £900 of their income on the mortgage!!!!Seriously! Why do people think they need to keep up appearances so much that they would rather starve than sell the house? (She lost her job over a year ago - so plenty of time to sell).Even having said all that, with £500 of cash per month coming in they have no reason to starve.


My own bills for my 4 bed house are £250 (council tax, gas, elec, water) leaving £250 to feed the family.Admittedly it would be a struggle, money for other things like clothes and presents would be non-existent but this is where the original point of SELL THE BLINKING HOUSE comes in.


I am surmising that they love a cigarette or pint, and that they probably have 2 cars sucking up all their cash.I love the biased crap that we get from the media these days, trying to make us shocked at the serious poverty in the country.... hmmm!


I am sure there really are some cases of real poverty, and I have admonished the paper to report on a real one next time.Cue all the comments from the bleeding heart brigade!

The_Black_Sheep

TheSaint wrote: »

I am surmising that they love a cigarette or pint, and that they probably have 2 cars sucking up all their cash.

Other than your own biased assumptions you have no f*cking idea though do you?

You might as well 'surmise' that they have a helicopter or class A drug addiction for all the relevance it has.

TheSaint_2

And your point?

The_Black_Sheep

TheSaint wrote: »

And your point?

Are you really so simple minded that you're unable to see it?

TheSaint_2

Clearly I am - enlighten me oh oracle of all knowledge

TheSaint_2

Maybe I wasn't clear enough for the likes of the Troll on the thread, but there must be another reason for the poverty, it is most likely debt repayments.That would be a very legitimate reason to need help, we all make mistakes in our lives after all. If the article had pointed out the real reason for the predicament I imagine people would have read it and thought - fair enough. Instead it looks like they are just scroungers.

Alex-Riley.

Maybe they can't sell the house because there's a house just down the road from where I live been up for sell since before we moved in here (over a year ago)

The_Black_Sheep

TheSaint wrote: »

Maybe I wasn't clear enough for the likes of the Troll on the thread...

Trolling accusations do nothing to bolster your failing argument I'm afraid, I'm no more a troll than you yourself.

Since you appear to need me to connect the dots for you, I'll do so: making baseless, unnecessary assumptions about a family's drinking habits or number of cars based upon nothing but your own apparent biases is unproductive and achieves nothing.

For example I might 'surmise' that your own participation on a money saving website is due to you spending too much of your income on your drinking habit, smoking habit, running more cars than you need and generally living beyond your means. If you drank less, quit smoking, sold one of your cars and 'cut your coat according to your cloth'* you might not find it necessary to use a money saving website.

You see? Another pointless, baseless assumption.


*before you ask this is a saying that advocates living within your means.

aliasojo

TheSaint wrote: »

My own bills for my 4 bed house are £250 (council tax, gas, elec, water) leaving £250 to feed the family.

The bills for my 4 bed are £190 council tax (which includes our water charges and is over 12 months not 10), electricity £120, oil £120. So that's £450.

Our rent is £700 for a house that needs work (and is clearly inefficient to run )but the average rent for a 4 bed here is £900/£1000 so we put up with things because of the lower cost.

It's foolish to measure your judgement of others on your own situation.

TheSaint_2

You forget, they live just down the road from me, so I know how much it costs to rent or buy cheaper in this area - so I can make assumptions based on that and the relative costs of heating the houses will be the same - in their case lower as they live on the "new" estate.And to the troll - I am not the one here bleating (see what I did there?) about needing a free hand out.

TheSaint_2

Alex-Riley. wrote: »

Maybe they can't sell the house because there's a house just down the road from where I live been up for sell since before we moved in here (over a year ago)

Absolutely - that is a perfectly sensible argument, however a good bit of journalism seeking to elicit some sympathy would have mentioned that fact. So either the article was rubbish (which I tend to believe) or they are not in that situation.