You won't tell on me, will you?

[pop_54]

Hi dear

European Monetary Union.

What it means is that the European Central Bank will have a group of hotshots down in Brussels deciding over us, setting the interest rate of our loans, etc. They are chosen for a period of 30 years, and CANNOT BE REPLACED NOR INFLUENCED BY THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE, and, to top it all off, the people have no legal right to look into their work to see what they're actually doing. Those papers are classified.

Officially, however, these things are never mentioned. All we're told by the politicians is that "Sweden has to grab the chance to influence Europe" (which was what they said before the election regarding EU, as well, and so far, we haven't had ANY influence over the Big Boys, England and Germany), "Sweden musn't isolate itself" (like the EMU-countries are in fact doing, by building up a wall around Europe), and "We have to stimulate the economy to save the welfare" (I've been to 3 EMU-countries in the past year, and I can tell you how they stimulated their economy: they raised the prizes with 60%. )
All we're told is that we're going to vote about switching from Krona to Euro, but nothing is said about the fact that when Germany couldn't reach the high goal that the EMU had set up for them regarding their yearly budget, they had to pay a fine of $180 000 to the EMU, which naturally didn't help up their economy very much, so in order to save money, they cut down on health care and schools...

Hubby lives in the US. I'm considering moving in with him.

If you want a refuge out of the EMU locally dear, we aint never joining it as long as the govn't here doesn't cheat.
Like Sweden there has to be a referendum vote of all citizens before the UK joins the single currency.
At the last count it was about 75pc against joining among UK citizens. We still have the pound sterling and we now appear to have the strongest economy in Europe as a result of not joining the crazy scheme.

We also don't count ourselves as being strongly federalist members of Europe, it there were a referendum on leaving the EU the UK would almost certainly do so.

Why the hell we joined in the first place is a mystery to me, we have fuck all in common with the French and German ideals of how it should be operated.

pops...........

 

[oggbashan]

Unemployment and Make-Work Schemes

Long term unemployment in the UK is penalised by "training" courses, "restart" courses, aggressive interviews about what jobs you have/have not applied for, and other techniques to get you off the records for a few weeks so that you no longer count as unemployed.

Locally most of the long term unemployed are unemployable because of sickness, disability or age. A fair proportion were resident in long stay mental hospitals until "they" decided that the mentally ill would be "better" in the community. Those have real difficulty just existing on a day to day basis.

Those who are addicts have to register as unemployed but no employer will touch them until they address their addiction. Even if they want to receive treatment they can't get it without going on to a 9 month long waiting list. At the end of the 9 months they have probably lost any will to change.

There are a few, a very few, who do not want to work. Those few know how to "work" the system which the other damaged people do not.

The system damages those who are already damaged and does nothing to prevent the few lazy gits from receiving benefits.

Those who are unemployed and genuinely want to work get no help from the system which treats them like dirt.

Some of the schemes which appear to be like the one Svenskaflicka is being asked to do are intended to get the unemployed back into the habit of going to "work" i.e. getting up on time, getting presentable, travelling to a location to arrive on time, and doing "something" no matter how mundane. That can help those who want to work but have become depressed by inability to find a job. For anyone else who wants to work they are an insult.

The unemployed are an easy political target for half-baked schemes which sound good but do nothing. If there was joined up thinking then the politicians would separate out the unemployable from those who could work and want to. Those few who could but don't want to work then could targetted effectively. But it is much easier to consider all the unemployed as lazy.

Og

 

[cahab]

Re: Going back to the original plot of the thread

I'm sorry to disagree with Svenska, but I'm all in favour of internships. There are a hell of a lot of people who scrounge off the state in England and that money could be far better spent on doctors, nurses, policemen, teachers, etc. If people can't find a job and are making no real effort to find a job, then find them one and make them work for their benefit money.

We are at a stage in our social evolution where we can afford to pay people benefits. If you look at our tax bills as a whole it's a small proportion. If people really want to live on that small an income, then let them I say.

In fact, sod the benefit system, just give everyone their tax free allowance in their hot sweaty hands and tax them higher on everything they earn afterwards. A lot more encouraging to people to go out and do some work.

I was on benefits for ages a while ago, and i also would have loved an internship like the one you mention. But we also have a minimim wage here; as you say, i don't think your 'employers' should be getting free labour. No wonder everyone's unemplyed when employers don't have to pay people. Instead have people work just long enough to earn their benefit. Wouldn't that be fairer? At minimum wage I make that about a day a week.

 

[ffreak]

You're tearing my heart out. If there was a way I could hire all of you I'd do it at the drop of a hat.

I am impressed with everyone's ability here to express themselves intelligently. Here you are working on the Internet, many making changes that require a little knowledge about how to work with computer language constructs, writing stories that entice people to spend time reading, skills needed in the marketing department at every company.

It is irritating to know that the companies in your areas are not smart enough to offer you real jobs that make use of your obvious abilities.

For now all I can offer is the mundane advise to always keep learning and never give up.

 

[Quasimodem]

. . . It is irritating to know that the companies in your areas are not smart enough to offer you real jobs that make use of your obvious abilities. . .

They did, and I do.

Which is why you find me here, playing about with something I really want to write about!

 

[Lovepotion69]

I hate Lit

Ok, not really but partly. I had written a nice long response and when posting it logs me out.

Ok, can't be bothered to rewrite it. Probably good, I won't get flamed for my views on the Euro debate. LOL

 

[ffreak]

I don't think it's Lit, more likely something within the higher rungs of the ISP ladder. I'm in North Carolina and the same thing happened to me tonight. But when I called Time-Warner, they could not connect either. Thats a large part of the east coast. I think it lasted about 2 hours here.

 

[Lovepotion69]

I don't think it's Lit, more likely something within the higher rungs of the ISP ladder. I'm in North Carolina and the same thing happened to me tonight. But when I called Time-Warner, they could not connect either. Thats a large part of the east coast. I think it lasted about 2 hours here.

It happended to me yesterday too when I wrote another long post. Remind me to save content next time.

 

[MathGirl]

It happended to me yesterday too when I wrote another long post. Remind me to save content next time.

Dear LP,
Your browser probably logged you off for inactivity. If you spend a long time writing a post on line, it will see that as inactivity. You can probably adjust your Internet Options to not dislog you so soon.
MG

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

Rhino, I was NOT whining, I was angry. You made your point clearer though. Calmate, hombre.

Perdita

 

[Guest]

 

[MathGirl]

Harumph

I know whining when I see it.
MG
Ps. Sign above bar in restaurant at Bodega Bay, Calif:
"NO WHINER'S"
The superfluous apostrophe sort of ruined it for me.
Pps. Okay, okay. So I ruin easily.

 

[Guest]

 

[The_Fool]

Cool, looks like I have company in my crankiness.....

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

Fool, Rhino, MG: a fine lot of curmedgeons.

Lurv you all, Perdita

 

[Guest]

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Whoa, hold the presses!

'Hubby' is in the U.S.???

What's he doing here if you are over there? I certainly wouldn't let you out of my reach, you delicious thing, you.

If you want to get over here there are plenty of people who will help (me for instance).

Hubby lives in USA. He's an American. He works for a travel agency.

I'm seriously considering moving in with him, but I'm still not sure. I mean, Sweden used to be socialistic, and now it's going more and more towards the conservativeliberal edge. USA has never even PRETENDED to be anything but conservativeliberal.

Earl, as for the living on benefits... If the companies refuse to give you anything but a part-time job, on which your salary will be evern lower than the benefit-money... then why would anyone scrub toilets, fry burgers, or wipe old people's butts, when they will get as little money from staying home and watching soap operas?

That's why the benefit is so low. The social services want people to be so unhappy about their low benefit that they will try to find a job to make a decent salary.
Problem is, there ARE no such jobs anymore.

Welcome to Catch 22.

 

[ffreak]

Dear Flicka, Come on over! Life here is not as bad as it seems in the press. Plus we have a LOT more things to see, places to go, people to meet, and on and on. And you really can get a decent job (U.S. unemployment is really lower than Sweden's unemployment - even when you consider the manipulation to get people out of the numbers).

We'd love to have you here. Maybe you could start a socialist movement magazine.
-----

does crankiness "enjoy company" as much as misery does?

Depends on how good the mutual cranking turns-.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I have this dream to write a column in a newspaper (like Carrie in SATC), called "The Outsider's View of America" or "From Sweden With Love" or something like that.

I would write about all the things that are so natural for you yankees, but are really weird for a Swede.

Like patriotism and de-caf.

 

[ffreak]

I knew it! You could become a syndicated columnist. We need replacements for our humorous/ironic writers we've lost in the past few years. You could help us laugh at ourselves. Why not whip one together and pummel us with it in these forums?

OK, you don't have to use a whip. But I don't know if you have a whole chain of them or if you want to slap a collar on this. (I'm just back from the doc this morning and its probably the drugs talking - making quite a racket too.)

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I just might do that. Test the waters, so to speak. If you guys fly off the wall, then I know that I need to tone down my communistic visions somewhat.

 

[ffreak]

What commune? Where is it? Can I join?

(sorry - just had a vision of being shut in by a snowstorm with 12 blond swedish girls and having to share our body warmth)

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Pah!

Do you know how much work you have to do to please ONE woman, before she'll even let you in her bed? (Washing dirty dishes, doing laundry, buy groceries, vacuum-clean the livingroom, clean the oven...) Now multiply that by 12...

When you finally get into that bed, you won't have any energy left!