Why the poor don't move

[Mich the Tester]

I thought this was "The unbearable sadness of the Welsh valleys"

The sheep looks rather embarassed.

[doodab]

You could argue that but you'd be wrong. The point is Move!! I have not moved because the rate I earn means that I can commute and we can stay where we are with the friends and family that we have in place. But if it meant that I couldn't afford to do that then rather than sit on my arse, claiming benefits and moaning about the lack of jobs - from a seat in a pub with a glass of lager in my hand, as in the show, we, as a family, would up sticks to a place that could/would provide me with work. There are plenty of parts of the UK that have been blighted by the lack of jobs etc, I live in one of them.

You need to look beyond individual circumstances and see the bigger picture. It may or may not be the case that moving will help these people find jobs, and the ensuing mass migration may or may not cause other problems, but that's completely irrelevant to my point, which is that waiting for something that isn't going to happen to happen is a mugs game.

The simple fact is that however obvious and sensible it seems to move in pursuit of a better life, people do choose to sit on their arse rather than do something about it. At the end of the day having these people sat there costs us all money, and the governments only response is a policy that doesn't account for human nature and therefore doesn't work. Ergo, the government needs to do something else.

[d000hg]

You could also argue that if a large proportion of the populace needs to travel 200 miles to work that this reduces productivity, places unnecessary strain on infrastructure and has a negative effect on their health and their children's health and education.

Yes, it's a stupid idea... what else would you expect on CUK

[MyUserName]

Yes, it's a stupid idea... what else would you expect on CUK

A very stupid idea?

[doodab]

Yes, it's a stupid idea... what else would you expect on CUK

A parody thread at least.

[Mich the Tester]

I find the situation in the Welsh valleys quite scary given the current economic situation here in NL. In the area where I live, of course it's nothing like as bad as in Wales yet, but unemployment is rising very fast because the building industry is on its arse after a tax incentivised housing boom collapsed, people won't move to find work because they can't sell their homes, and very nice looking neighbourhoods like where I live are suddenly having to deal with half the adults on the street being unemployed (was almost nobody a few years ago) and local young people kicking around with bugger all to do.

This was a very nice neighbourhood, wealthy thanks to a building boom but I can see the problem growing; people don't want to travel to work and indeed the benefits office only makes them go to interviews that are less than 45 minutes travelling away from home, so they sink deeper into this cycle of unemployed parents, unemployed kids and dependence on the state. Some of them are jealous of us because we drive nice cars and go on expensive holidays, but they just whinge; they don't ask how we do it, and the odd one that does and hears that we both work more than 40 hours a week and spend quite a lot of time in the car or in hotels away from home then asks 'oh but if you spend all week away from home what sort of a life is that?' or complains that we're taking up two jobs that others could do. In one sense I should perhaps give some of the locals a kick up the arse and tell them to get in the car and travel to the ends of the earth to find work, if only as an example to their kids, but on the other hand I don't want to destroy relations with all my neighbours. Somehow they seem to think 'family life' and 'spending time with the kids' is so important that you sacrifice the chance to work for it.

I've been to the Welsh valleys on rugby trips and it's scary; that's how things are going to be in many other places that have always considered themselves quite secure if people stay on their arses and do nothing or go nowhere.

[MyUserName]

Yep, and I certainly wouldn't blame you, but do you see how this affects those areas? The smart people get up and leave or make a success of life and then move to a smarter area never come back, so the example they could set to others is never seen.

Oh good point, I have never thought of that. Tricky ...

Although to be fair the drug trade back there was flowering amazingly well, as was the bouncer trade (before you needed a licence) due to all of the violence caused by a load drunk, drugged up people in the one nightclub. Add in a couple of different rugby teams and you were set to go! I would guess the paramedics were in high demand as well.

[BoredBloke]

You need to look beyond individual circumstances and see the bigger picture. It may or may not be the case that moving will help these people find jobs, and the ensuing mass migration may or may not cause other problems, but that's completely irrelevant to my point, which is that waiting for something that isn't going to happen to happen is a mugs game.

The simple fact is that however obvious and sensible it seems to move in pursuit of a better life, people do choose to sit on their arse rather than do something about it. At the end of the day having these people sat there costs us all money, and the governments only response is a policy that doesn't account for human nature and therefore doesn't work. Ergo, the government needs to do something else.

All you are doing is shifting the blame. They are claiming a benefit lifestyle is because there are no jobs and no jobs and you are blaming successive governments for letting them down over the past 40 years. I say take some personal responsibility for yourself and your family. If there are no jobs and you can clearly see that there are jobs in other areas then surely it makes sense to go to the areas where there is work and find some. On that show there was a food parcel delivery. If your kids are literally starving and in need of charity food gifts, then I fail to see how they could be worse off if you, as their parent, got on your bike.

[original PM]

blah Somehow they seem to think 'family life' and 'spending time with the kids' is so important that you sacrifice the chance to work for it.Blah.

Those are just excuses - they may have used them enough that they now believe them but....

[Mich the Tester]

Those are just excuses - they may have used them enough that they now believe them but....

Yep, I think so too, but who's going to tell them this? If I tell them then I'm 'that rich bastard who says it's all our own fault' and my windows will be first on the list when their fat teenage kids get plastered in the pub at the weekend.