Agreed.
But to get to that level of desperation, things must have gone seriously wrong. And most of those things could be prevented or fixed by a less selfish society.
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Is that not where were heading now.Some people are in dire straits and may have to make tough decisions to feed their families.Not all of them will make what we may deem the right decision .I donāt condone what some feel the need to resort to,but i do understand why they do.
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Yep. Itās where weāre heading.
And it was all preventable.
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Itās understandable that anyone might feel cynical about politics, especially these days. There is so much to be cynical about, itās overwhelming at times, but there are differences between societies and systems. There are places that have more freedom than others, there are people in public life who are working to help others and create better conditions. Itās easy to think that all politicians are liars and conmen, but if that were true, there would never have been progress, everywhere would be equally oppressive and despotic, which is not the case. There are places where people have worked hard and sacrificed in order to win freedoms and rights and those should not be dismissed or taken for granted. Those who wish to oppress us want us to be cynical, they want us to shrug and say ātheyāre all the sameā. Thatās how they beat us down.
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I havenāt read the article, because I donāt have access. But Iām going to go out on a limb and guess that the gist is that it isnāt the Tories fault, and anyway Labour would be just as bad.
How am I doing?
Thatās fair enough, and @cynicaloldgitās (rather uncharacteristically cheerful) post above yours does suggest that it is not in our natural state to commit those acts.
Bookmark this site and use it to peek over the paywalls
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I donāt know if you are writing for lulz, if you are actually cruel, or if itās all an act. I said your prefered penal code was harsher than the one in Nazi Germany, which would make most people consider if perhaps they were exaggerating and if they really meant what they were saying. Instead you go " Goodwinās law, none of what you say therefore matters" !?
Seriouslyā¦
I hope itās all a Tough Guy act. One is not supposed to think going down the path of Social Darwinism to be a wonderful compliment unless one is really fucked up and cruel.
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Murderers, seriously ? You even ask ? In Norway, extremely few murderers kill again when released from prisons. Those who do basically become infamous because it is so rare.
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This a million times over.
No, you miss the point. If I were put in that position (whatever you think it is or whatever its cause) I wouldnāt attempt to get out of it through theft.
Yes seriously, you do know what Godwinās law is I take it? With regard the rest, because I want people who do dreadful things (burglary at the least) to be punished, you think Iām pretending to be a ābig man?ā Thatās just odd mate as Iām pretty sure most people expect punishment for crime. You know, crime and punishment? Odd concept I know, only as old as the human race.
As for social darwinism, I love America as you meet so many people who still have the drive and determination of the original pioneers. Those who strove for a better life and their progeny still strive today. The fittest and best should and do flourish, thatās just nature and no amount of social control should be allowed to muzzle it. Left vs right again. Capitalism vs socialism. As old as war and warriors.
I refer you to Mr āOne dropā Trooper from Discworld:
Heās also a bit of a thinker. āDo you really think all this deters crime, Mr Trooper?ā Albert Spangler asks him.
āWell, in the generality of things Iād say itās hard to tell, given that itās hard to find evidence of crimes not committed,ā said the hangman, giving the trapdoor a final rattle. āBut in the specificality, sir, Iād say itās very efficacious.ā
āMeaning what?ā said Albert.
āMeaning Iāve never seen someone up here moreān once, sir. Shall we go?ā
On a slight tangent, this sentiment has always sat uneasily with me as the fittest and best rarely flourish. Oftentimes, most of the times, nay, almost always, it is the financial inheritance rather than any genetic inheritance that is most consequential in how well people do. Those that work hard in America and succeed tend do so as they are usually enabled by the system, socially, financially or a combination of the three. I would move to America as it is good at enabling those that already have a slight leg up - unless I was in absolute desperate straits I would not move there if I had no qualifications or means to establish myself.
The broader problem is how do you move the needle for those that are there and already stuck within a neighbourhood / society / county that is stuck in a cycle of ācrime and punishmentā. Gentrify/socially cleanse the area? Invest in breaking the cycle by social means? Build a fence around them? It is clearly not an easy problem as no country (or religion) has managed to solve it.
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Well, we used to ship all the runts to Australia. Now they thrash us at cricket because theyāre genetically murderous thugs whoāll do anything to win.
Ahem, time for bedā¦ā¦
On a serious note, thereās no question that money makes money. A very interesting project would be to give 100 random people (20 if itās TV based) Ā£50k to setup a new business. Would be criticised to all hell as some would fail and this wouldnāt sit well with modern sensibillities.
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Nice to see Fishy Rishi being called out here:
Heās still better than Truss, mind.
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Something like this was done about 10 years ago but with people who had been claiming benefits for a long period of time. I think it was on ITV. I only caught the first or second episode I think so never saw what happened by the end of it.
i think there would be a lot of support for this idea - the government already runs programmes to support or mentor people to set up their own businesses, it just doesnāt provide large sums of cash to help set them up.
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They were both being called out on tv yesterday by a professor (Christina Pagel of UCL and Independent Sage) who has been quite vocal on Covid. This is probably where the article has come from.
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Yes, itās called a universal basic income.
Ā£50k isnāt anywhere near enough to do a decent job in retail unless itās purely online. We did it on a shoestring, bailiffs are such nice and polite peopleā¦ā¦