Property prices!

[hugebrain]

Council Houses

I think it's actually the opposite. We have been subsidising the scroungers for years and because they've scammed so much money from us already, we think it's worth giving them an extra twenty grand to cut our losses.

Council houses were designed as a sort of reverse eugenics to breed legions of future Labour voters. Thatcher naturally tried to stop this. Unfortunately it has backfired a bit and now we have the twin scourges of housing associations and housing benefit buy-to-letters. Same problems as before, but even more expensive.

[HRH]

These people are only taking advantage of the opportunities they have open to them. I only wish I had been smart enough not to work hard and do what seemed to be the 'right thing' when I could have sponged off the state and had a similar standard of living. The lesson seems clear, unless you are making good enough money to claw yourself out of a mediocre existence you are better off not working for a living. A lot of people are making a sensible pragmatic choice.

Guardian reader alert.

[wendigo100]

Guardian reader alert.

Not really. What he's saying is you can't blame people for spongeing if the opportunities are there.

When he was at Uni, Gordon Brown actually wrote a book on how to scrounge off the state, so you can see that the problem starts at the top.

[andy]

.
Gordon Brown actually wrote a book on how to scrounge off the state, so you can see that the problem starts at the top.

Seems like he has perfected this art by now

[nucastle]

I know people who didnt have the earnings to be able to afford a house and lived in a council house instead.

.... they later sold their council houses (after buying them for nothing) and now have a better standard of life than people who earn more money, but bought their own houses instead of getting them off the council.

Thats the way the cookee crumbles, and im not bitter or anything, but its interesting to see people who's circumstances meant they couldnt afford a house properly, now have more wonga than people who wouldnt or couldnt live in social accomodation.

The reasons for selling council houses were totally understandable, but it really is a 'leg up' eh

[xoggoth]

I don't have major a problem with some redistribution provided it is properly targetted. I don't even have a major problem with the MORALITY of socialism in general, only the practicality.

Surely the problem with this sort of thing is that it is not properly targetted and has nothing to do with need? Once someone is established in council housing they are pretty much in it for life regardless of any improvement in their position. This means that those eventually able to buy their council houses are neither the most needy not the most deserving. Part of this subsidy may come from those who are.

Totally wrong in my view.