Arnie. Prepare to be Terminated!

As I said in my previous post. I am currently unemployed at the moment. Another victim of staffing spending cuts during the economic downturn. It's pretty tough, and there is a lot of competition for jobs at the moment. There is simultaneously an up swelling in stories about "cushy benefits anecdotes." and that life on the dole is too rewarding to find real work. There is also talk of encouraging people to find work, which is all good and fine, IF THERE WERE LOADS OF BLOODY JOBS GOING! THERE ISN'T. THAT'S THE GODDAMN REASON PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF ARE OUT OF WORK!! There seems to be a bunch of people who think that everyone on the dole wants to be there. They do not seem capable of distinguishing the majority of people who are out of work due to plain bad luck, than the minority who do fiddle the system. People like Arnold Harrison who contributed this masterpiece of joined up thinking to the Bolton News:

"TO Mr Brian Derbyshire. I have followed your contributions for many years, not always agreeing, but in this case on reading your comments about Mr Stuart Chapman, I totally agree with him.

Many of the present younger generation do not want to work and have no intention of doing so In many cases it being no fault of their own but the system. The lack of quality education, the lack of incentives and deterrents. Why rise early in the morning to start work at 7.30am in a mundane job with little future prospects when I can stay in bed, draw my weekly benefits and with a little wheeling and dealing get by very nicely, thank you.

Why learn? Why conform? Why work? The pot at the end of the rainbow does exist but only for the very few. The remainder are happy to sit and wait for the finger of fate. In the meantime, life is more than bearable and do not gorge, Mr Derbyshire, our nation has a policy of importing foreign workers to do the jobs we will not do ourselves. It is the system.

Arnold Harrison Little Hulton"

Missing the point a bit. Doing Northernbloke has raddled my brain or something. I have a greater urge to hammer these people around the head (spiritually speaking of course!) with the stupid illogic of their own ramblings, than I used to do. So I sent this response to this idiotic letter that goes as follows.

"One of the strongest indicators of healthy self awareness and a good grasp of the topic at hand is when you can judge whether to dive in and explain a complex social problem, or whether it is best to actually do some research on what you’re talking about beforehand. This way you don’t end up being the opinionated voice of the saloon bar pundit. A nugget of wisdom that seems to have escaped Mr. Arnold Harrison; author of (Why work for a mundane job?) a staggering letter about youth unemployment. Which is ironically, written by someone who knows nothing whatsoever on youth unemployment.

Leaving aside the tiresome and insulting cliché that “today’s youth” are a bunch of lazy oafs (they aren’t). Mr. Harrison appears to think that most unemployed people both want and choose to be unemployed. (They don’t) I’ll let Mr. Harrison into a little secret they don’t. Speaking as an unemployed, not so youthful youth, (31) I don’t appreciate being told by someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about on this issue that we are in the position we are in because we don’t want to work. And that I’m better off unemployed. (Trust me I’m NOT!) There are too many people out of work, and too few jobs to go round. I was made unemployed by the far reaching hand of the economic slump, not through choice. I have e-mailed and written to as many employers I can think of. If you get a response from one in thirty of them you are doing well. I’ve signed up for voluntary work, but there is a back log (work it out.) I’ve walked around retail estates giving out CV’s. I’ve even somehow managed to haul my lazy youthful backside out of bed at 6 am to do jobs in the past. Mr Harrisons letter really could have done with a bit of research.

I can assure him I have never got up thinking I’m on a winner. I’ve gone from quite a well paid job, to 60 quid a week on the dole (taxes which I paid into in previous jobs, and will pay back in future ones.) I am in a kind of limbo – which only those who unintentionally find themselves out of work can understand, as my life is on hold while I find something new. It’s the strangest kind of cushy existence I’ve ever experienced.

So Mr. Harrison, I suggest you get your facts straight, before sounding off in the paper. We live in hope."

I don't pull to many punches, and it is long(ish) for a newspaper letter, so I don't know how likely it is going to get published. But we'll see. I am so sick of this kind of lazy arsed [non] thinking, swallowing the big lie as generously as an alchie necks slugs of whisky. Two seconds of reflective thinking about what he had written should have told him that you do see lots of under 30's working in every day situations, oh all the bloody time! I literally believe people like Arnold have got their heads so squarely up their backsides, they would believe any limit of stuff so stupid and so self evidently irrational, if it backed up their silly world views. I don't think I could even begin to think up the kind of utter arse these people could potentially fall for, if it rang all the right bells. Even if I stayed in a dark room for 20 whole years. Depressing isn't it?