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Forums - General - Family too fat to work, need more benefits

highwaystar101 on 25 March 2009
hsrob said:
Obesity is a symptom, not a disease, so you can't just 'cure' it in everyone with a one -solution-fixes-all kind of approach.

Admittedly without knowing all the facts, my first impression with these people is that they need to lose their entitlement complex and go out and get a job.

But forcing or coercing medical care of any kind on any people for any reason and you are on the top of a very slippery slope.

 

That's exactly the problem with Anorexia, you can't call it a disease, it's a symptom (usually of anorexia nervosa) that's why it is so hard to treat.



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largedarryl on 25 March 2009
hsrob said:
Obesity is a symptom, not a disease, so you can't just 'cure' it in everyone with a one -solution-fixes-all kind of approach.

Admittedly without knowing all the facts, my first impression with these people is that they need to lose their entitlement complex and go out and get a job.

But forcing or coercing medical care of any kind on any people for any reason and you are on the top of a very slippery slope.

Maybe I worded it incorrectly.  Of course obesity is a symptom, most times a result from a treatable disease.

 



Kasz216 on 25 March 2009
highwaystar101 said:
Kasz216 said:
highwaystar101 said:
Kasz216 said:
Nirvana_Nut85 said:
This is ridiculous. 22,000 GBP is like 40,000 CDN(Which is a good take home after taxes) . Shit If the government will give you that over there for being fat lazy pieces of shit, then I'm gaining a hundred and 60 pounds and getting my biritish citizenship,lol.

The fact that they're complaining about how much they get and saying "it isn't fair" is what really pisses me off. I mean, people like that should be left to fend for themselves. Instead of giving them a hand out the government should cut them off so that they'll be forced to work.

22,000 GBP is more then i've made some years when i've worked 40+ hours a week.

Everything might cost a lot more in Great Britian though due to being socialized.

That's like $30,000 in the US

and used to be 40,000 before the UK hit it's monsterous financial troubles.

 

Bold - You've never been to Britain have you.

Italics - it was only because ever $40,000 because the American economy was extremely shit and the dollar was worth nothing. If you look at it, historically the disparity beteween our two currencies has never been much. Then a sudden drop occured that destroyed the dollar and it has yet to recover in reality. It's a shame our economy followed yours :-p

The pound historically was 2 to 1... or close to it. I used to pay for British MUD back when i was in highschool.

Even 1.5 is 30,000. That is a lot.

The UKs economy has always been bad though... or rather set up for failure.

I mean the last decade was the only time people weren't talking about how the Uk "lives above it's means".

It's been a consistant theme since.. at least world war 1.

 

Hmm, you are right about it being 2-1, but this graph shows that they were very close during the late 90's and early 00's which is when I would have noticed due to my age so from my perspective I guess it seems like that was the case. Sorry Kasz, I was very mistaken.

I don't agree that the economy is set up to fail, the service industry is primarily bank oriented so that is living dangerously as times like these will show, but it has been a decent performing economy in times of prosperity. You can't always have growth, you have to have recession too and this is what makes us look bad now, but we will recover... I bet switzerland or UAE aren't doint to hot right now either.

...Oh and for the debt after WWI, we were rich before then but that war cost a looooot of mullah and it's been hard to recover, especially after WWII as well.

 

Eh not as right as you might think.  I wasn't born until 1982.  The UK has way too much external foreign debt which is the problem.

Having an economy that's really awesome when it's awesome but really bad when it's bad is like having a fast moving car with shoddy breaks.  It's just asking for a crash.



highwaystar101 on 25 March 2009

^ I agree with the car analogy, but aren't a lot of economies like that? Not to the extremes of Britain I'm sure, but a lot of economies must be like that.



SamuelRSmith on 25 March 2009

^Except our economy isn't doing particularly bad at the moment, we're performing better than the eurozone, our unemployment rate is roughly parallel to that of the US' (and you don't see any predictions about 1 in 6 British citizens being below the poverty line by the end of the year in the UK, unlike the US).

Sure, we have a load of debt, as does our Government, but who gives a shit if no one is going to collect it? As you said, we've been living beyond our means since WWI, and we survived the great depression, and the '80s recession.

Anyway, as for the topic at hand, I personally think that these people should have their benefits reduced slightly, but have a "carrot" of getting more benefits in return of reaching certain weight targets, with support from the NHS.



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Kasz216 on 25 March 2009
SamuelRSmith said:
^Except our economy isn't doing particularly bad at the moment, we're performing better than the eurozone, our unemployment rate is roughly parallel to that of the US' (and you don't see any predictions about 1 in 6 British citizens being below the poverty line by the end of the year in the UK, unlike the US).

Sure, we have a load of debt, as does our Government, but who gives a shit if no one is going to collect it? As you said, we've been living beyond our means since WWI, and we survived the great depression, and the '80s recession.

Anyway, as for the topic at hand, I personally think that these people should have their benefits reduced slightly, but have a "carrot" of getting more benefits in return of reaching certain weight targets, with support from the NHS.


Hey it happened to Iceland.  People insisted Iceland pay them.

The UK being cheif in that actually.



SamuelRSmith on 26 March 2009

The difference being that a lot of Iceland's debt was in the UK, and other nations. Seeing as London is the world's financial sector, it's only reasonable to believe that most of this nation's debt is with other British banks, which are much easier for the Gov't to control (especially when they now own most of the big hitters).



Kasz216 on 26 March 2009
SamuelRSmith said:
The difference being that a lot of Iceland's debt was in the UK, and other nations. Seeing as London is the world's financial sector, it's only reasonable to believe that most of this nation's debt is with other British banks, which are much easier for the Gov't to control (especially when they now own most of the big hitters).

It's not.

Note "External debt".  As in outside of the country.


It sits at over 10 trillion dollars.  With a GDP of slightly over 2 Trillion.

It's about 5 to 1.


Icelands External Debt when they hit bankruptcy was 6 to 1.

Now up to 9 to 1 i believe.



SamuelRSmith on 26 March 2009

Ah, I was mistaken.

I'm going to find out what this external debt really means for our economy tomorrow in my economics class.



Kasz216 on 26 March 2009
SamuelRSmith said:
Ah, I was mistaken.

I'm going to find out what this external debt really means for our economy tomorrow in my economics class.

Cool.  It's an interesting subject.


It's basically what your government, people and buisnesses owe other governments.

Being a huge international financial sector is actually a reason why the UK is having some problems right now.  Well that and the UK has always "lived above it's means" even before then.

It's a substantial risk should the world hit another rough time before the economic recovery happens.

Switzerland should be a good indicator.