Hey, I just realised where all my taxes go...
Hey, I just realised where all my taxes go...
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Simpo Two

Original Poster:

89,479 posts

282 months

Thursday 3rd September 2009
quotequote all
For some inexplicable reason I found myself watching Channel 4's 'Benefit Busters' - possibly because the other terrestrial offerings were even worse.

We are treated to a retard who got drunk and fell off a balcony on his 18th birthday, and now we're supposed to pay for him for the rest for his life because it hurts a bit when he bends down. You or I might go to the doctor and get fixed up, but he's not that bright. And so we end up paying for him to do nothing. Better still, the half-dozen or so staff at the job centre are not only paid a decent wage (by us) to sit and chat to him, but are on commission to get him a job! (paid for by us). You may spot a theme here. So that's 100K a year that Gordy is having to borrow and that we will have to pay back (if there's anything left after we've paid for petrol, VAT, NI, IPT, little pensions for us and big pensions for the public sector)

So what's in it for us? Well, entertainment of course - a programme about a retard with a dodgy back. It just seems an awfully expensive way to fill our screens. Unfortunately for the subject, there are no jobs anyway. All the unskilled stuff has gone to the Far East, where they can cope on a dollar a day - possibly because they don't have to pay benefits to idiots - whilst our leaders seem to think that everybody is entitled to a degree, £30K and paternity leave. It just doesn't add up - and I hear the clucking of inbound chickens planning to roost.

otolith

62,378 posts

221 months

Thursday 3rd September 2009
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I saw that advertised, thought about watching it and then realised that if I'm going to watch things I already know are going to boil my piss, I may as well start reading the Daily Mail. So I didn't watch it, and I suspect I am much happier as a result wink

catmartin

889 posts

214 months

Thursday 3rd September 2009
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But he's got such lovely teeth!

Chris_w666

22,655 posts

216 months

Thursday 3rd September 2009
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Don't worry about it, they have changed the system and by October the first wave of £2bn in public money will be handed over to private firms to get people off their arses in a slightly different way. rolleyes

Jasandjules

71,283 posts

246 months

Friday 4th September 2009
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It simply isn't worth the blood pressure increase to watch these shows.

When I did some of my training it transpired that around 1/4 of the budget of the entire country is spent on benefits..........

mat205125

17,790 posts

230 months

Friday 4th September 2009
quotequote all
Jasandjules said:
It simply isn't worth the blood pressure increase to watch these shows.

When I did some of my training it transpired that around 1/4 of the budget of the entire country is spent on benefits..........
I thought about watching it, however knew that it would just wind me up.

theaxe

3,571 posts

239 months

Friday 4th September 2009
quotequote all
Jasandjules said:
It simply isn't worth the blood pressure increase to watch these shows.

When I did some of my training it transpired that around 1/4 of the budget of the entire country is spent on benefits..........
Or to put it another way, the benefits bills exceeds the income tax take. So basically (more than) every penny you pay in income tax goes straight into someone else's pocket.

I like the idea that appeared in another thread of running TV ads to show those on benefits the kids and old people that we can't afford to look after properly.

Edited by theaxe on Friday 4th September 13:20

Oakey

27,953 posts

233 months

Saturday 5th September 2009
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
For some inexplicable reason I found myself watching Channel 4's 'Benefit Busters' - possibly because the other terrestrial offerings were even worse.

We are treated to a retard who got drunk and fell off a balcony on his 18th birthday, and now we're supposed to pay for him for the rest for his life because it hurts a bit when he bends down. You or I might go to the doctor and get fixed up, but he's not that bright. And so we end up paying for him to do nothing. Better still, the half-dozen or so staff at the job centre are not only paid a decent wage (by us) to sit and chat to him, but are on commission to get him a job! (paid for by us). You may spot a theme here. So that's 100K a year that Gordy is having to borrow and that we will have to pay back (if there's anything left after we've paid for petrol, VAT, NI, IPT, little pensions for us and big pensions for the public sector)

So what's in it for us? Well, entertainment of course - a programme about a retard with a dodgy back. It just seems an awfully expensive way to fill our screens. Unfortunately for the subject, there are no jobs anyway. All the unskilled stuff has gone to the Far East, where they can cope on a dollar a day - possibly because they don't have to pay benefits to idiots - whilst our leaders seem to think that everybody is entitled to a degree, £30K and paternity leave. It just doesn't add up - and I hear the clucking of inbound chickens planning to roost.
i raised this issue in the other thread and got my head bitten off.

That woman in the Shawtrust place was earning £24k a year plus bonuses. They also get 5 weeks holiday according to the Shawtrust website. Now, she may be paying taxes and working, but it still comes out of the governments pocket. The episode the other week shows what a big scam the entire system is. The guy who got a job with the landscaping firm which appeared to work on council estates trimming hedges and cutting lawns, etc.

So you have government funded firms employing people on what's a pretty decent wage (£24k is way above average for Oldham I'd have thought) whose job consists of trying to get unemployed scumbags into work with companies like the landscaping firm (who were paying over £7 an hour) who appear to be contracted by the council to maintain council estate properties lived in by said unemployed scumbags!

carreauchompeur

18,215 posts

221 months

Tuesday 8th September 2009
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I'm just watching this episode with the ginger sicknote.

Cheeky little sod. There is a very telling section of film where he drops something, goes halfway to pick it up, then remembers that he's meant to have a dodgy back and stops, giving the camera a cheeky grin.

Then, magically in the medical assessment, "Can't bend at all".

Yep, it's a pissboiler alright.

I refer to my previous idea- Benefits now exceed total income tax take. So assign each taxpayer the requisite number of doleites. Tax bonuses paid to those who "persuade" them into work. Simples!

Eric Mc

124,089 posts

282 months

Tuesday 8th September 2009
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What proportion of "benefits" make up the state pension?