Where has all the wealth gone? Where it always has been, in the hands of the top 1%. The rest of the people have been living on credit from that top 1% and now they are presenting their IOUs.

Only fools and imbeciles believe we have democracy. What we have is plutocracy.

Oh dear, last post deleted.

Robert, no anger, cynicism, heard it all, seen most of it before. And yet, year in and year out the cycle is repeated and the financial demands increase and our bleeding hearts politicians, hugely better off (milionaires/multi millionaires-fat undeserved virtually unattainable by 98% of the electorate) prefer to deprive us and favour of the foreign politicians/leaders rather than leave it to us to choose and benefit either from a tax cut or swifter reduction of debt.

Their preference is to borrow more to benefit the unworthy to about 99% of borrowed money and leave us to pick up the ineterest payments. Insult to injury.

snoekie,

I have to agree - mostly.

An individual is verging on becoming insolvent and is getting close to not being able to afford even paying back the interest on his loans - no way would any financial adviser say:

'Borrow more money!' (unless the adviser was a crook!)

Your use of the term 'The unworthy' is a bit emotive.

Not ALL people on benefits are unworthy but I have to agree that instead of being a humiliating experience that many have to experience as a TEMPORARY (apart from those physically or mentally genuinely unable to work) it has become enshrined in our culture as a 'right' with no consideration of the fact that 'getting something for free' is impossible and that the right is causing harm to the economy as a whole and destroying the wealth and incentive of many ordinary citizens who should not be paying for others to be sometimes deliberately idle.

I believe we could reduce debt significantly if benefits were INCREASED for those unemployed for a very short period (say six weeks) and REDUCED for those fit enough to work but who have been unemployed for more than the short-term generous payment window (instead of vice-versa as with some benefits which is economic insanity).

Once a person has been unemployed for more than a few weeks and already put all their energy and resources into unsuccessfully finding a new job they begin to feel depressed and life becomes a vicious downwards spiral; even attending a job interview is an expensive risk of not having enough money left over to pay for food after spending a large chunk of a rapidly reducing disposable income.

Helping people who have been unemployed for greater than six months or a year is far harder than getting people back to work quickly - and the agencies employed to help the long term unemployed are wasting over 90% of their resources as their 'clients' have mostly lost all hope and self-respect and many don't even want to ever work again.

The government must live within its means as a first step before reducing national debt and living within its means cannot be put off forever as economic conditions are never going to be perfect to make a start!

Don't get me wrong; it's very hard for many people to survive on benefits and would be even harder if we, as a country, lived within its means...........

BUT

If we are poor as a country we cannot afford to be over-generous even if what we provide now isn't exactly a life of luxury for those on benefits (and, I am sorry to say, a life on benefits should NOT be a luxury).

Benefit recipients might have to go without even more and even give up such 'rights' as owning a television licence and have to reduce expenditure on such basics as alcohol, tobacco (I say this as a smoker and have often gone without food in the past to pay for my addiction), taxis to bring back the groceries and maybe even public transport. (I used to get a bus once per week to bring my shopping home, having walked downhill to the city centre and hopefully just saved more than the bus fare as a result).

You may think I must be joking, but I've known and seen many people on benefits getting a taxi to do take them to and from their weekly shop while I got wet even walking to the nearest bus stop. A taxi to me has always been a luxury (even when in well paid employment).

Benefits might get to be so bad that the healthy unemployed would find it an incentive to genuinely seek work as a final act of desperation.

There are many, many unemployed people who genuinely want work but either cannot find it or can be actually worse off by taking a part-time job; that is morally disgusting.

We MUST encourage people to work and ensure that everybody is better off by working however little they are able to contribute to society.

One last thought:

If all the unemployed people vanished overnight think how many 'Job Seeker Centre' employees would lose their jobs and how much retail food sales etc would drop; even the unemployed consume and help others prosper......... but not in a really positive way one has to admit!

.

Rose G,

I hate to be a party pooper, but do you have ANYTHING positive to say?

Wealth? What Planet have you been on for the last 15 years? If you mean Money, then it was all borrowed from the four corners of the Earth. Banks financed their lending book not with deposits but from short term inter Bank lending, and then one day somebody said Hold on a minute I dont like the look of their lending portfolio and stopped lending. Help said Northern Rock, Help said RBS. Gordon to the rescue with the Tax Payers money to keep them afloat. HBOS was a bit too far for Gordon so he sacrificed the Lloyds shareholders in stead. There was never any wealth,just figures in a book. Even Corporation Tax payments had to be borrowed. On top of all this was the Socialist myth that Governments can finace by borrowing endless handouts to all and sundry. This latter effort was on a scale unknown in history. Now ,old fellow we the Tax payer has to find the payments for all this from somewhere. In the old days it was known as eating the seed corn. Dont worry though it is only money!