Britain's highly educated, motivated workforce

[DimPrawn]

Exactly.

This "the army will take them" tripe really gets on my nerves.

The modern army neither needs nor wants indolent, unemployable halfwits.

To function as an effective, modern soldier, you have to be literate, numerate and be able to grasp concepts and information readily.

Ok, you don't have to be Einstein but the sort of idiot we are breeding in droves is no use to the armed services.

Hey, I'm not expecting them to become professional career soldiers, just be pushed over a hill straight into the path of 200 heavily armed insurgents.

Sorted.

[ratewhore]

Exactly.

This "the army will take them" tripe really gets on my nerves.

The modern army neither needs nor wants indolent, unemployable halfwits.

To function as an effective, modern soldier, you have to be literate, numerate and be able to grasp concepts and information readily.

Ok, you don't have to be Einstein but the sort of idiot we are breeding in droves is no use to the armed services.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. If you've ever seen a line-up of fresh infantry recruits on day one of basic, you'll know what I mean.

[Mich the Tester]

Do you take your pro-immigrant view because you are one?

NO, I take this view because aside from contracting I am an employer, and I don't want to be forced to hire useless little twits who can't be arsed to go to school and would cause more damage than I can afford to clear up, when I can hire a motivated candidate who might, by chance, come from another country.

[ratewhore]

NO, I take this view because aside from contracting I am an employer, and I don't want to be foreced to hire useless little twits who can't be arsed to go to school and would cause more damage than I can afford to clear up, when I can hire a motivated candidate who might, by chance, come from another country.

Fair one, I assumed it was down to you working in NL with, presumably, plenty of other non-NL workers.

[Board Game Geek]

Then isn't the problem that those jobs don't pay enough?

Quite probably.

After all, don't contractors bemoan the same thing ?

Money is a motivator, sure, but it can also be a demotivator, as in not being paid enough.

How many of us moan about agents and rate cuts for example ?

[bogeyman]

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. If you've ever seen a line-up of fresh infantry recruits on day one of basic, you'll know what I mean.

Yes, but you just have to think of them as raw, unmoulded talent

[expat]

and one day, before too long, practically everyone will be in the same boat, knowledge worker or not.

I've droned on about this here in the past, but it's a big elephant in the room which people seem hardly aware of let alone as a topic worthy of discussion. Basically the issue is how can/should society be structured when practically nobody can "add value" by their own exertions or talents?

In a way maybe McDoom is way ahead of the game with his tax credits?! (God, I need to wash my mouth out with soap now!)

You are absolutely right (not just about the soap). There is no imaginable way that our economy can employ all our potential workers. It is essential to stop seeing everybody as that (a potential worker); to stop defining people by their job; to stop seeing "a job" as necessary for everyone.

Or to look at it a different way: maybe everybody could work, but a bit less. I don't know how we could do that; not communism, of that I am sure (I've seen it). But the current division into those who have no spare time, and those who have nothing else, is poisoning us.

Full-time work for everybody is a 20th century preoccupation, and no politician AFAIK has successfully given up the idea as a requirement for everybody, and an imposition on the government as a policy. Labour, the most dedicated to offering this doubtful benefit to all, is most in thrall to the idea, since that is the way that they get to control us all (I call IR35 in support of this). But too often the Tories don't know any better what to do about it, given that people do need money in our current society.

Before the 20th century most people did not have a "job" as we know it. After the 20th century this may be true roo, although in a different way. It is time that we started to think of what way.

[Mich the Tester]

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. If you've ever seen a line-up of fresh infantry recruits on day one of basic, you'll know what I mean.

They obviously managed to find their way to a recruitment office, pass the interview and the tests, write their names and addresses on the application form, read the documents telling them where to be at what time and turn up for training, which is more than ‘Carl and Lauren’ ever achieved in their lives.

[ratewhore]

They obviously managed to find their way to a recruitment office, pass the interview and the tests, write their names and addresses on the application form, read the documents telling them where to be at what time and turn up for training, which is more than ‘Carl and Lauren’ ever achieved in their lives.

I can't argue with that at all.

[PM-Junkie]

I've posted the solution before. Bring back national service and then invade France. It's a winner on so many levels...