Reply to: DM does a good deed.

[doodab]

The husband is on minimum wage , budgeting nicely, the husband becomes sick.

You are on a good wage but the husband dies leaving you with a massive mortgage and 3 kids.

You are a single mother on benefits (Your hubby was banging a newer model every month), the benefit office screw up your benefits and take 3 months to fix it.

You are on minimum wage and need your car for work (you are paid about £0.15 per mile by your multinational tax avoiding employer) you family and sick wife need your wages, the car breaks you have no reserves.

You work 3 jobs and one of them is driving a minbus. the minbus breaks and you need £1500 to repair it otherwise you lose those earnings.

You were out of work and missed a council tax payment, the council demand all the money now, you make an agreement to garner wages and you then get laid off, you get a new job and the garnership agreement doesn't transfer, the council demand £600 or the bailiffs take your car.

all happened to my friends / acquaintances.

The last one the person could of done a slightly better job but there was no spare cash.

Now most of us can dip into our current account for that sort of money, for these people its half or all of a months wages.

Exactly. One massive luxury most of us enjoy is not having to worry about how we'll cope if some minor inconvenience crops up and we need to spend a bit of money to sort it out. An awful lot of people, if not most of them, aren't in that position.

[hyperD]

Everyone likes a boogeyman. Makes us feel part of the puppet show.

[minestrone]

I find the 'front of the class' whining about the paper much more annoying and unpalatable than anything they write.

It is a paper that seems to draw in idiots and the majority don't read the thing.

[Ticktock]

Some nice person just sent me this:

While not a DM fan, that list appears to hold a lot of quotes needing context, and names a couple of things that aren't wholly untrue.

Stephen Fry a "liberal pansy of the worst, most BBC-lefty type" - are you objecting to the word pansy? Liberal pansy was a common term, and not necessarily a homophobic slur (he wasn't out at the time). He is liberal, and a BBC-lefty.
Claims oral sex causes cancer - I thought that, with the addition of the word "can", this is true, via HPV?
Demanding a stop to compulsory HPV administration - why? Without knowing the reason the called for this it's difficult to make a call on this. There are lots of potentially life-saving treatments and vaccines out there that are judged "not financially viable", why is HPV more acceptable than them?
Absestos chemically identical to talcum powder - Mg3Si2O5(OH)4 vs Mg3Si4O10(OH)2. Similar, not identical.
As for Milliband Sr., was an objective factual view of his beliefs ever confirmed? I missed it one way or the other.

[darmstadt]

Some nice person also predated Facebook by 2 years!

Yes, the Daily Mail. They actually wrote that

[Gibbon]

Some nice person just sent me this:

Some nice person also predated Facebook by 2 years!

[speling bee]

Some nice person just sent me this:

Don't forget that nice Lord Rothermere.

Lord Rothermere, telegram to Adolf Hitler (1st October, 1938)
My dear Fuhrer everyone in England is profoundly moved by the bloodless solution to the Czechoslovakian problem. People not so much concerned with territorial readjustment as with dread of another war with its accompanying bloodbath. Frederick the Great was a great popular figure. I salute your Excellency’s star, which rises higher and higher.

[darmstadt]

Some nice person just sent me this:

[darmstadt]

Was this in the UK media? Cameron’s office calls police on Bishop trying to deliver letter on poverty...

UK row over Christian values and food poverty - Features - Al Jazeera English

Police were called when Hebden accompanied the Bishop of Oxford, the Right Reverend John Pritchard - one of the UK's most senior religious figures - to Cameron's constituency office in Witney, Oxfordshire, to hand in a letter about food poverty signed by scores of church figures.

"Summoning the police like that illustrates the sense of panic in this government about rising food poverty levels because they are in such denial about this problem," Hebden said, pointing out the police soon left when they realised they were not required.

[vetran]

The husband is on minimum wage , budgeting nicely, the husband becomes sick.

You are on a good wage but the husband dies leaving you with a massive mortgage and 3 kids.

You are a single mother on benefits (Your hubby was banging a newer model every month), the benefit office screw up your benefits and take 3 months to fix it.

You are on minimum wage and need your car for work (you are paid about £0.15 per mile by your multinational tax avoiding employer) you family and sick wife need your wages, the car breaks you have no reserves.

You work 3 jobs and one of them is driving a minbus. the minbus breaks and you need £1500 to repair it otherwise you lose those earnings.

You were out of work and missed a council tax payment, the council demand all the money now, you make an agreement to garner wages and you then get laid off, you get a new job and the garnership agreement doesn't transfer, the council demand £600 or the bailiffs take your car.

all happened to my friends / acquaintances.

The last one the person could of done a slightly better job but there was no spare cash.

Now most of us can dip into our current account for that sort of money, for these people its half or all of a months wages.

[darmstadt]

A little bit like those financial geniuses running the country, not exactly very good at looking after everyone's finances. Obviously then the electorate are only taking a leaf out of those in power

UK National Debt Surpassed £1 Trillion
Mainstream media headlines today are focused on Britain's record national debt, which just surpassed £1 trillion, a figure that can only exponentially increase unless the entire mechanism of Government finance is overhauled. The truth however is much worse, factoring in all liabilities including state and public sector pensions, the real national debt is closer to £4.8 trillion, some £78,000 for every person in the UK.

The UK national debt grows at a rate of £5,170 per second!

The United Kingdom National Debt Clock 2014 Counter >> nationaldebtclock.co.uk

[xoggoth]

Anyway, even people who are fiscally responsible can end up in difficulty

Agree with last 4 comments. Not everyone has the same ability to run their financial affairs or even their lives effectively. However, society has a right to expect that everyone should do what they reasonably can for themselves before calling on help from others. From each according to their ability, as good old KM said.

[NotAllThere]

...being able to be responsible for their financial affairs is something that can be reasonably expected of every adult.

Now who's living in a fantasy land? Do you really believe that to be true? I assume you occasionally meet real people from time to time.

Anyway, even people who are fiscally responsible can end up in difficulty. If you're reasonably well off and make a wrong decision, or something unfortunate happens, you can cover it. If you're on the tightrope, you can't afford to make a single mistake. As soon as you do, you're ****ed. You have to do the right thing all the time. There is no margin for error.

[mudskipper]

There was a programme a few weeks back where various z-list celebs stayed with people who were struggling to make ends meet.

One woman in particular had it sorted - she had a spreadsheet and noted down everything she spent - she knew where she was to the penny. Her celeb (Heather from Eastenders) wondered what she was doing there - the woman had enough to eat and didn't need any help.

Then the benefits office screwed up a payment - her bank account went overdrawn which resulted in charges and more charges, and she went from making ends meet (just) and being in control, to feeling hopeless, helpless, in despair and unable to afford to eat.

Most of us on here are pretty lucky. The vast majority of people have no more than a month or two's reserve, and many have much less than that. No matter how careful and in control you are, it takes one unexpected bill or mini-disaster and you're over the edge.

[doodab]

That's where you and this government fall down.

There are people with every level of intelligence who are lacking impulse control over financial affairs. Some are lucky and have a spouse or other relations who can control them so there is not a nasty fall out while others aren't.

Plus even if you do have the necessary control the fact that benefits like JSA are paid on a two week cycle not a calendar month causes problems.

Some people just lack the skills and discipline for budgeting as well. They just never learnt them. There are a lot of basic life skills such as these which are learnt primarily from parental example and the lack of them is perpetuated from generation to generation.

Or course it goes without saying that the more meagre your means the harder it is to live within them, especially when faced with unexpected expenses.