More Good News ......

Carl31

TruckerT wrote: »

What would you describe as a 'proper' holiday'?

In Bangladesh, it might just be an occasional day off work...

TruckerT

The guy in the article in the ops link was from nottingham?

Whats bangladesh got to do with anything? Unless you knoe something i dont about this estate

kabayiri

I think we have lost sight of the article.

I would argue that over the last 15 years there has been a lot of money directed towards the lowest tier in society. Tax credits have contributed; free laptops; back to work schemes, there must be more.

However, has this example of a community progressed at all? Do they feel more in control of their own lives, and a potentially better future?

It doesn't seem so.

Food banks do have negative connotations, but they do suggest a different way of redirecting funds. Putting money into communal resources, than individual pockets. Maybe this is a wise plan?

grizzly1911

kabayiri wrote: »

Food banks do have negative connotations, but they do suggest a different way of redirecting funds. Putting money into communal resources, than individual pockets. Maybe this is a wise plan?

You are probably right and that may be the way forward.

However government should formally acknowledge that point and fund them appropriately*. Expecting this to be achieved wholly through voluntary donations & organisations as demand grows isn't sustainable.

The likes of Tesco etc. "donating" merely means we end up paying through inflated prices , yet another stealth tax. the same happens with energy companies.

* This may well require realignment of existing budgets or acknowledge that those budgets are insufficent for the scale of the problem.

Graham_Devon

wotsthat wrote: »

People don't go clubbing or buy Facebook credits because they're 'supposed to' - they want to because they get pleasure from these activities today.

People don't save because they're 'supposed to' - they do it because they want to defer spending until a later date.

The economy isn't a collection of people hand-wringing about what they're supposed to do i.e. save or consume (it's possible to do both BTW).

Everyday through their lives people make lots of small choices and each one has an outcome. The lady with a £2500 outstanding utility bill didn't arrive in that position overnight - lots of small choices led her to that destination mixed in with some luck/ bad luck.



Indulgent self pity.

You are making very obvious statements.

But again, it has nothing to do with my point, apart from stating the absolute obvious.

My point was about what we suggest others should be doing. It's been said on here enough times now....how many times has it been stated if the young want to buy a house they should save instead of buying an ipad or spending money on trainers?

It's also been stated enough times that savers are parasites.

My point was that we want to suggest people should save instead of buying stuff which "we" don't feel justifies spending on. Either way, we can mock them from our position further up the tree.

As grizzly pointed out. We also want them to pay more for their pensions so that ours are secure. We also want them to pay more for education so that we can pay less taxes. (The "bring the immigrants in to pay for it so we don't have to argument is a prime example).

You, on the other hand, are just sitting there trying to disagree by making obvious statements that have nothing to do with my initial post. It seems a lot of people simply agreed with my original point. Why drag it out and find something to disagree with?

wotsthat

kabayiri wrote: »

Food banks do have negative connotations, but they do suggest a different way of redirecting funds. Putting money into communal resources, than individual pockets. Maybe this is a wise plan?

It's treating the symptom and does little to deal with the problem.

These people didn't end up on this estate just because they had budgeting problems. I'd love to know historical data for the occupants for parameters like truanting, criminal records, substance abuse, mental health and similar data for their parents.

vivatifosi

kabayiri wrote: »

Food banks do have negative connotations, but they do suggest a different way of redirecting funds. Putting money into communal resources, than individual pockets. Maybe this is a wise plan?

wotsthat wrote: »

It's treating the symptom and does little to deal with the problem.

These people didn't end up on this estate just because they had budgeting problems. I'd love to know historical data for the occupants for parameters like truanting, criminal records, substance abuse, mental health and similar data for their parents.

I think food banks as a concept need to be split from the broader problems. Most food banks, certainly the one near me, operate on a crisis basis. They give food to people who are faced with an unexpected cost, or their benefits payments not turning up etc. It is a gift of three days worth of food to get them through an immediate crisis, rather than something you could live off, and has to be sanctioned by a doctor, social worker or other person in a similar position. They aren't a long term baseline here, as may be the case in the USA where the safety net is structured differently.