https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/07/we-need-to-build-on-the-furlough-scheme-not-cut-it-to-avoid-mass-unemployment
This article, rightly, makes the point that forcing people back to work during a pandemic when the status of who's been infected, who hasn't and if there is anyone resistant to Covid-19 is unknown. That's before we understand exactly what a second and third wave of this will be like and do to the wider community.
However, the line that really chimed with me was the opening one:
"A senior government source warned yesterday that people are “addicted” to the furlough scheme. “We have to get people back to work,” he said.
If you are outside the UK and younger than I, to be honest, that's probably 90% of those reading this, you may not be familiar with the modern industrial history and why a stupid, crass and clearly ignorant comment like that from the ruling class would "chime" with me.
The last time we heard such language, at least out loud from a government, was when Margret Thatcher took power in 1979. To say she is a divisive character in the UK lexicon of political history is very much understating it.
Rather than relitigate what a terrible person she was, you may notice the slight bias there, the numbers, as they say, don't lie.
Economic growth was weaker under Thatcher than under preceding governments. Subsequent, Tory governments, at best, faired no better. This wasn't because they didn't follow her policies, it was because they did.
In the first 4 years of waging war on the working class, unions, social services, public housing and any protection for the poorest and worst off in society, Thatcher took the unemployment rate from 5% to 12%. This simply exacerbating all the problems being imposed on the whole of the UK working class by Thatcher.
This was the government so crass and narcissistic that a member of the cabinet, Norman Tebbit, told the unemployed to simply, "get on yer bike" and go and find some work. Of course, there were no jobs to be found due to the fact that, as I have pointed out, growth was so incredibly weak. No investment was taking place by government just to add to the fact that no private businesses were investing. Oh no, they were too busy ensuring they did well out of the situation whilst abandoning those who they make money off the back of.
The demonisation of the poorest is very much the mantra of the right-wing across the world but the UK seems to have the creme de la creme of horrid, public schoolboys, that had been emasculated and humiliated by the physically bigger boys and so now are getting their revenge.
Notice that the cowardly, "senior government source" is happy to make this kind of statement, and why wouldn't they, it is what they actually believe, but wouldn't dare do it publicly.
Instead of forcing people back to work to simply make a bad situation far worse, as those that "rule" are normally happy to think and use language to describe the working class as machinery, I'll give them an analogy that even they will understand.
If the backbone of your IT network had become infected by a virus, say a piece of malware, it would be completely appropriate to bring the system offline before it is harmed any more than it already is or could spread the virus to another part of your system. You would then take the time to allow experts, which you'd pay for, to ensure that the system was completely repaired and free of the virus before you put it back to work, right? However, the virus is still out there, still capable of infecting your system. So, you'd keep it offline until the virus had been traced to every last source and that it was eradicated so that it can cause no more harm, which of course, you'd pay for.
So, you see, protecting your workers, that provide you with your inflated income, is the least you should do. I know you get this because I am putting it in terms that put you first, now, in the future and always.
After all, you have a hard time understanding that your workers aren't machines but it's only in this context you give a single thought for them and their welfare.
For the human beings reading this, this virus is killing people. You won't earn a single penny if you are dead. Please, take care of yourself and your families in this amazing difficult and dangerous time.
This article, rightly, makes the point that forcing people back to work during a pandemic when the status of who's been infected, who hasn't and if there is anyone resistant to Covid-19 is unknown. That's before we understand exactly what a second and third wave of this will be like and do to the wider community.
However, the line that really chimed with me was the opening one:
"A senior government source warned yesterday that people are “addicted” to the furlough scheme. “We have to get people back to work,” he said.
If you are outside the UK and younger than I, to be honest, that's probably 90% of those reading this, you may not be familiar with the modern industrial history and why a stupid, crass and clearly ignorant comment like that from the ruling class would "chime" with me.
The last time we heard such language, at least out loud from a government, was when Margret Thatcher took power in 1979. To say she is a divisive character in the UK lexicon of political history is very much understating it.
Rather than relitigate what a terrible person she was, you may notice the slight bias there, the numbers, as they say, don't lie.
Economic growth was weaker under Thatcher than under preceding governments. Subsequent, Tory governments, at best, faired no better. This wasn't because they didn't follow her policies, it was because they did.
In the first 4 years of waging war on the working class, unions, social services, public housing and any protection for the poorest and worst off in society, Thatcher took the unemployment rate from 5% to 12%. This simply exacerbating all the problems being imposed on the whole of the UK working class by Thatcher.
This was the government so crass and narcissistic that a member of the cabinet, Norman Tebbit, told the unemployed to simply, "get on yer bike" and go and find some work. Of course, there were no jobs to be found due to the fact that, as I have pointed out, growth was so incredibly weak. No investment was taking place by government just to add to the fact that no private businesses were investing. Oh no, they were too busy ensuring they did well out of the situation whilst abandoning those who they make money off the back of.
The demonisation of the poorest is very much the mantra of the right-wing across the world but the UK seems to have the creme de la creme of horrid, public schoolboys, that had been emasculated and humiliated by the physically bigger boys and so now are getting their revenge.
Notice that the cowardly, "senior government source" is happy to make this kind of statement, and why wouldn't they, it is what they actually believe, but wouldn't dare do it publicly.
Instead of forcing people back to work to simply make a bad situation far worse, as those that "rule" are normally happy to think and use language to describe the working class as machinery, I'll give them an analogy that even they will understand.
If the backbone of your IT network had become infected by a virus, say a piece of malware, it would be completely appropriate to bring the system offline before it is harmed any more than it already is or could spread the virus to another part of your system. You would then take the time to allow experts, which you'd pay for, to ensure that the system was completely repaired and free of the virus before you put it back to work, right? However, the virus is still out there, still capable of infecting your system. So, you'd keep it offline until the virus had been traced to every last source and that it was eradicated so that it can cause no more harm, which of course, you'd pay for.
So, you see, protecting your workers, that provide you with your inflated income, is the least you should do. I know you get this because I am putting it in terms that put you first, now, in the future and always.
After all, you have a hard time understanding that your workers aren't machines but it's only in this context you give a single thought for them and their welfare.
For the human beings reading this, this virus is killing people. You won't earn a single penny if you are dead. Please, take care of yourself and your families in this amazing difficult and dangerous time.
Submitted May 09, 2020 at 08:27PM by partypoliticalpuffin https://ift.tt/3bkpZLl
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