Well I've not really waded into this whole workfare debate too much yet however I think I have now made up my mind as to where I stand
It is okay to expect people to contribute to society however that contribution should not only be for the good of the person it should be for the good of all.
How can forcing someone to go and work at Poundland be in anyway helpful to their rehabilitation on to the jobs market? What exacting skills training does this job bring about and in reality if Poundland actually has the work for someone to do then surely they should pay them the national minimum wage for doing it. Oh I'm sorry I forgot that's not what all this is about is it?
If there is the work there to do then there is a job that can be paid for by the employer.
"A fair days wage for a fair days work" F.D.Roosevelt
Now FDR was a man who knew a bit about our society. In the midst of the worst depression seen in the Western World FDR brought forward his new deal. Okay you detractors will say that it didn't work for all, true I will give you that, but it did turn America from the slumbering giant into the powerhouse of manufacturing and business that it is today.
And the idea was simple pay someone a fair days wage for a fair days work. Not what workfare is doing I'm afraid. What it is doing though is reducing the figures and through clever PR manipulating the nation!
This country is in need of a rebuild. Quite a significant rebuild as it happens. We have infrastructure that was built in the 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's and some would say not the 1900's but the 1800's. We have hospitals that need repairs badly, we have railway stations where if you're disabled you can't access properly and we have town centres that are dying.
What exactly is spent on improving infrastructure in this country each year? what is the market worth to Civil. Mechanical and Electrical Engineers? Billions I would guess. What if we offered these organisations the money from the social security budget providing that they did exactly what FDR set out to achieve. What if instead of plowing that money into merely sitting at home playing on the XBox we rebuilt our manufacturing industry. No not like it was but aimed at 21st and 22nd Century goals. Where is our modern Brunel? Where is our modern Stephenson? Ah I forgot they're too busy getting fat and rich and forgetting that your company is only as good as the investment you put into it.
And the biggest investment should always be in the people!
We have generational unemployment because the rich don't like the poor and the rich don't like the buses. We have generational unemployment because we have gradually forgotten that Great Britain was the powerhouse of the world and it led that through science and technology and engineering and pioneering.
And it also led it through the compassion of people like Lever, Cadbury, Fry, Boots and Clark to name a few. People who actually saw that you get the best from a workforce if you teach them to aspire and teach them the skills they require. That you teach them that collaboration is better than confrontation.
Lincoln decreed that no man should be a slave and a nation went to war. Well if we bring back slavery in this country Ladies and Gentleman I am prepared to go to war. I will not allow, and nor should you, the enslavement of your fellow human being. Let us live by higher principles not by higher profit margins. Let us live by loftier ideals not by rising dividends.
I think the man who founded Merck and Co the pharmaceutical giant said it best
"If you look after the patient the pennies will look after themselves"
And our patient today is those people who want to work who want to contribute but who are being manipulated by a few for the sake of a few middle class votes at the next election!
Do not play politics with people's lives be bigger than that !
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