I never worked and never will

To start, the title does not apply to me. I am now 32 years old and since I was 14 years old I have had employment of one sort or another.
Back then it was summer jobs, just to have some money for getting myself through the summer. After I finished school, I went to college for a couple of years, then had various jobs in different parts of Ireland and also spent a couple of years in London.

Even when I was unemployed for about 3 months between jobs I lived off money I had saved so I didn’t have to go on benefits.

The subject of my rant is a (very) close relation of my girlfriend. She is now 26 years old and has never been in any kind of employment. She has 2 children by 2 different fathers and seems content to sit back and let the state(I.e. us taxpayers) pay for everything she gets.

Now, I know the economic situation here in Ireland is still in an awful state and that any kind of employment is hard to get, but even when things were going well back in the Celtic tiger years she never made any attempt to find work.

Well, a few nights ago we had her and her (current) boyfriend over for dinner and the one thing that sticks in my mind was when she came out and said ‘I never worked and never will, I get all the money I need from the state‘, childrens allowance etc, and she is actually thinking of getting pregnant again!

Well, at that point I bit my tongue and said nothing, but I think they got how I felt by my stony silence for the rest of the time they were there. I just find someone with an attitude like this absolutely disgusting and even though myself and my girlfriend are both working we have to struggle week to week just to make ends meet (currently without heating oil until next payday).


Anyway, rant over… just had to get it off my chest.

Tell me about it.

I need new friends. I did have loads, but now they all have babies, and they've never worked!!

Grates on me! I work constantly, and I cant afford ANYTHING. They left school, got up the duff, got a free flat/house, and EVERYTHING paid for. They have more spare than me, and constantly complain they don't get enough.

Funny that, you go clothes shopping every week, and are always ringing me to ask me if I want to go on some elaborate trip, that I repeatedly tell you I CANT DAMN AFFORD. NOT THIS MONTH, NOT NEXT MONTH, NOT EVER.

I'm far too busy paying for my keep, food, and travel.

Kindly, all of you, go fock your selves.

Have a nice day, Sinny.

reply to post by cahlmac


Unless she has babies her whole life she will get a rude awakening one day.

Sadly, she won't be in a fit state to find a partner and will be worthless.

Take away ALL benefits for these parasites. Sorry to be harsh but that's how I feel.

My sister's boyfriend is a lazy git who hasn't worked in 15 years. She has recovered from Leukemia and is now back at work supporting him. The only reason I haven't dissappeared him is out of respect for my sister.

I feel for you both. I've ranted on this very subject many many times before. I've never been out of work, apart from around six weeks when I was made redundant, never had benefits, never needed them. Work ethic was drilled into me as a child and I've never lost it.

The cherry on the cake for me was about 4 years ago when my ex partners niece got pregnant and had a baby with her out of work layabout boyfriend at only 17. She obviously has never had any kind of job. Living in London, which isn't cheap (I do understand that) she then got a flat, and every benefit imaginable, to the tune of £37k a year. I, and many others like me, have grafted for decades and never earned that much, so how in any universe is it fair to hand it out to people who have never contributed a single penny to society?

Jobs do exist if we want them badly enough, even part time, in most places. That's not saying that I completely and totally sympathise with people who genuinely want to work and can't get it...they are not the people we're talking about there...wanted to make that perfectly clear. The selfishness of this kind of behaviour stuns me. If we all did this, who would fund it, hmmm? But they don't care about that, just about when their next benefit cheque arrives, and it keeps them happy.

It will keep getting worse and worse, until the benefit payments stop when we run out of money, then maybe there will be some kind of revolution. Suddenly, when the handouts stop, and there is no more cushy lifestyle to fall back on, and oh god...we have to work, and fend for ourselves?? Then maybe we will see what people really are capable of, and it won't be pretty. I guess it suits the government to keep dishing money out like this, like some kind of social sedative.

Ah see....I'm ranting now too...!

Originally posted by Sinny
I'm far too busy paying for my keep, food, and travel.

And paying taxes to support THEM!

I'm in the States, but it's the same here. A real sense of entitlement.

I have parents coming in for conferences, they can't afford basic school supplies for their children, have children from multiple fathers, do not work at all (at least legally), get government assistance.

Then they answer their smart phone during the conference and drive away in an SUV.

we need reform badly....too many taking advantage of the system.

I am not referring to those individuals who genuinely want to work, but bc of the economy are having a hard time finding employment.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Smart fones and SUVs.....of course...! How in the hell do they afford them? I suspect that the people who know what real poverty, or even frugality is, are not the people on benefits. I should write some of the stories I've had from my mum's family in post war Glasgow, from miner's families with 8 children in tiny houses, and how they not only coped, but thrived, and not on government handouts either. The wastefulness of it all makes me sick, when the rest of us work so hard to create what we want.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I can see that this is happening in countries all over the world and like some of you have said it seems to be seen as a right to have hard working taxpayers fund people lifestyles.

It wouldn't be so bad if this particular person was temporarily unemployed and was actively looking for work, but it seems that she feels that she is just entitled to get whatever money she can and not worry about where it comes from!

I know a lot of my friends now that are unemployed, and would give their right arm for a job, they feel that it is right to support their families and a lot of them are suffering from depression as they are depending on the state to get them by. These are people who like myself, were working from a young age and know no other way. It's people like this that I don't mind my tax money going towards. At least it can be seen that they are making an effort.

But there undoubtedly is an element in society that feels no compulsion to contribute. These are the ones that really get to me

Wow.....started reading this rant out of curiosity, but then just became blown away by some of the scenarios you all have detailed......This hits home on my side, I live around the corner from a convenient store and have gotten to know one of the girls that works there....so go in and stay a bit longer than I should to chat. This is what I witnessed

90% of the people that came through in about a 30 minute period used food stamps to pay for their purchase. That wasn't the initial problem, it was when I started paying close attention.....It was all junk food, candy, chips, sodas.....and they are huge, most was way overweight.......Here was the part that got me.

100% of those paying with food stamps pulled out cash to buy lottery tickets......some of them pulled out large wads of cash to pay for lottery tickets, cigs, and booze.....Wait, if you have enough to buy the luxury items, you have enough to stop using my money to by crap.....Seriously, with our technology, it would be absolutely nothing to set up the system that people can only use food stamps for household necessities....cleaning products, milk, eggs....etc. We already do it for booze and cigs, can't swipe the card to pay for them, just increase the list....Never should a food stamp dollar go to a candy bar unless you are diabetic....

My thought on this, break it down by need:

option 1. You have a job, work 40-50 hrs a week, it just pays for crap.....Fine, your good.

option 2. You don't have a job, but are looking......Prove it, I was on unemployment for 4 months in Florida, they made me log what companies i applied for....simple enough, shows effort (even if it is faked), BUT then, go to anywhere and work at least 20 hrs volunteer work at a shelter, school, or shoot any government agency.....Government is always complaining that they are understaffed and don't have the budget to hire more....Fine, you are already paying these people, put them to work.

option 3. You don't have a job, don't intend on getting one because you are a breeding machine......not a problem, you want taxpayers to pay for you and your spawn, fine, option 2 applies to you too.....After you give birth, allow the acceptable time to recover, then go to work at a daycare or family oriented institution for at least 20 hrs a week.....take your kids with you, and help take care of other people's kids who have jobs during the day....

My point, there is zero reason they should not be giving if they are receiving.

reply to post by pointr97


Isn't it really sad that people who live like this think this is how life should be....seems they have no notion of that they might be capable of, what they might hold the potential for, because they're fat and lazy on government funded junk food trash, with no motivation at all to change it.

I get so angry....we don't have food stamps over here, but I see lots of people where I work collecting benefit money and promptly spending it on booze and cigarettes and corporate food. No education to go with it on how cheaply you can feed yourself decently, and drink and cigarettes? Never, ever should be paid for with benefit money, as far as I'm concerned.

How to change it though...mandatory education and work programs, even for ten hours a week, might be a start, or no handouts.

reply to post by cahlmac


I can not agree with your rant more . They wife and I make good money , we made the decision to refrain from having children in this screwed up world and can barely make ends meet .

Yet I have a neighbor who has three children from three different men , lives in a HUD house (state pays for her home) which is much nicer than my own , has a fairly new SUV , walks up and down the street chatting/texting on her iPhone , gets food stamps/WIC card and can afford more/better groceries than the wife and I , has some ne'er do well dude living with her (who does not work either) with a back yard full of pit bulls . I over heard her talking to our other neighbor stating she was knocked up yet again and made the statement "I'm pregnant , I get a raise !"

PI$$ed me off to no end !

reply to post by cahlmac


And so why didn't you say something?
I remember years ago my youngest sis was complaining about the state cutting her off when her youngest became 2 years old. She had just had her 3rd kid ,unmarried,no job, and her useless boyfriend had no intention of working.
I felt that someone in our family needed to say something at that point to her. So I told her,did it ever occur to you to not have anymore children that you can't afford? That there has to be a point when you have to take responsibility and feed and clothe your own kids? My husband and I BOTH work and we have to decide whether to buy a meal or shoes for one of our 2 kids. Why should our taxes go to feed kids you keep crapping out?

Needless to say she was miffed at my response,but I didn't care.Someone needed to tell her like it REALLY was.
Due to the relationship you may or may not have with this person I can understand that you wouldn't want to speak that strongly to them,but I think you should have said something.Just my two cents.

reply to post by Dimithae


Hey, thanks for the reply.

I hear what you are saying and believe me, I was so close to saying something that would make my initial rant above look pretty tame, but to tell you the truth it would have fallen on deaf ears.

This girl is one of these people that is set in her ways now and is so used to getting handouts from not only the government but also family (not my gf by the way, we had that conversation) that she is unwilling(not unable) to go out and provide for her kids.

But believe me, one more conversation like the one I heard at my dinner table that night and something will be said!

This is the divide, I was going to respond to one, then continued reading....

You guys are all on point, the OP stated that 37k pounds a year.....I make 38k in dollars, considerably less, and I have an engineering degree and i want better...but it isn't out there just yet....

So, that means that a layabout makes more per year than I do, and I work hard in a rough occupation.....So what does that tell me as a lesson, quit working, have a sex change and start producing babies....BLAH I say. I give it to the devil's advocates on this site..........

Give me one reason and only one reason the average woman who is receiving benefits for no other reason than having kids cannot be put to work at a children's hospital or daycare or elementary school that her kids go to.....Why can she not go to the kitchen of the school her kids go to and prep food?

Originally posted by whenandwhere
reply to post by cahlmac

 

"I'm pregnant , I get a raise !"

Absolutely unbelievable .....like having baby after baby is her contribution to the world, and we owe her something for it.

I also made the decision when I was very young not to have children for various reasons, but partly because I passionately believed that it should only happen in the right, permanent relationship, and with the right amount of money behind me. That combination of circumstances never happened, so I didn't ever have children. Yet these women treat what should be their precious offspring like some kind of income generators.....just disgusting.

Originally posted by caitlinfae

Originally posted by whenandwhere
reply to post by cahlmac

 

"I'm pregnant , I get a raise !"

Absolutely unbelievable .....like having baby after baby is her contribution to the world, and we owe her something for it.

I also made the decision when I was very young not to have children for various reasons, but partly because I passionately believed that it should only happen in the right, permanent relationship, and with the right amount of money behind me. That combination of circumstances never happened, so I didn't ever have children. Yet these women treat what should be their precious offspring like some kind of income generators.....just disgusting.

You know what is sad?......You made the right decision based on logic......showing you have the intelligence to evaluate the situation....meaning You Should be reproducing.....to pass on intelligence......

Where am I going with this.....there was a movie a few years ago....Idiocracy.....it was a comedy, tongue in cheek....my wife (ex now) and I watched the first thirty, we were laughing until one point.....we looked at each shocked and realized we are almost there.......if you haven't seen it.....watch it, it is scary

reply to post by pointr97


I used to work at a bank, and the first of the month was a nightmare. Everyone would come in to cash their welfare checks, it was awful. I've seen women dripping with gold, while their babies run around in diapers with poop running down their legs. I've seen women come in dressed in the latest designer fashions and their 6 children were barefoot and filthy. I've actually seen a woman who was letting her baby suck on a battery.

My point is, I would never, never, never let one of these women "care" for my child while I was at work. They normally don't care for their own children. The system is set up so that the more children they have, the more money they get each month. When they have a child they only see dollar signs. It is disgusting.

One poster hit the nail on the head. One day they are going to have a rude awakening. What happens when all their children are grown and they have never worked a day in their life?

reply to post by pointr97


Well thank you. A few people have commented that I would have made a great parent, and sometimes I think I should have just taken the risk and done it, but it never really felt right, so I know I made the right decisions. I'm nearly 47 now, and ironically am with a man I would have loved to had kids with had we met 10 years ago even, but timing is everything and if we're meeting now, it kinda means it wasn't for us. And he has kids already, so....

It just blows me away that these women, and weirdly it does mostly seem to be women, have such a massive sense of entitlement, and are so blase about what should be sacred.

And yes, jobs in schools for parents who get government money, as teaching assistants, creche workers, cleaners, cooks, first aiders, sports assistants, library staff, administrators, gardeners...the list is endless.