are we still a fair country

[Ferru123]

Quite.

You can wait around for someone to hand you an opportunity (and you may be waiting for some time!), or you can go out there and make things happen.

Jeff

Perfect example of the assumption that the only way forward is into a job that someone else has created.

How did they create it?

Getting off their backside, maybe?

[payuppal]

So where do new jobs come from?

Thin air?

They come from people starting businesses that grow.

Not from people sitting around moaning.

[superfrank]

I note the extraordinary decline in the nation's health over the last 40 years, given that we had 200,000 disabled in 1970.

we've probably still only got the same proportion of disabled people - the massive increase is just in the amount claiming to be disabled.

[mister man]

So where do new jobs come from?

Thin air?

They come from people starting businesses that grow.

Not from people sitting around moaning.

in all honesty and fairness you will not get 4M plus new business start ups and if you got 0.5M new business sole traders on top of filling the 0.5M vacancies, it still leaves 3.9M looking for work and or on benefits. I think calling them all moaners is a touch simplistic really. Approx 2.9M of them would and will be overjoyed to work.

[payuppal]

I'm pointing out that we seem to have at least 2 million more disabled people now than in the 1970s, and 2.5 million more than in the 1960's, despite life expectancy going up markedly.

Jobs, of the kind we need now, are created by people taking risks and starting businesses.

The days when ever more jobs were created in the public sector are over.

There's no money.

[Ferru123]

Most people have something they're good at. If they don't, they can get good at something. All you then need to do is make a living from what you're good at.

Good at repairing stuff? Offer a handiman service, and market it online and in supermarkets (or just approach random members of the public, or go door to door).

Good at making people laugh? Become a stand-up comic.

Good at baking cakes? Sell your cakes locally, online and via adverts in shops.

Facebook was started out by a guy with a vision, with very little money to begin with. Carphone Warehouse's Charles Dunstone started out with 17K. From small acorns... The problem is that not enough people have the 'get up and go' to say 'Sod it! Opportunity isn't going to come to me, so I'm going to go out there and find it, or die trying!'.

Jeff

[Ferru123]

PS Here are a few ways to cut the dole queues:

A. Scrap the rules that allow non-British EU citzens to work as employees over here. In the words of Gordon Brown, 'British jobs for British workers!'

B. Say 'to hell with civil liberties', and round up and deport all illegal immigrants, and stop taking people claiming asylum unless they have a genuine contribution to make to the UK economy. It could be done very quickly IMHO if there was the political will. All you'd need to do is make it so that the police could demand of anyone that they show their passport to prove they're British or have the right of abode here, and detain them if they're unable to do so (with a fast-track process if they are illegal immigrants). As an aside, if we stop taking in asylum seekers, it might mean that people are more likely to overthrow despotic regimes, rather than running away from them, so this is arguably a case of being cruel to be kind.

C. Scrap the minimum wage. If the cost of hiring an employee goes down, basic economics says that more employees are likely to be hired.

Jeff

[mister man]

I'm pointing out that we seem to have at least 2 million more disbled people now than in the 1970s, and 2.5 million more than in the 1960's, despite life expectancy going up markedly.

Jobs, of the kind we need now, are created by people taking risks and starting businesses.

The days when ever more jobs were created in the public sector are over.

There's no money.

the fig in 1970 was 200k its now 700k thats a big increase but not 2M, its 0.5M also as most of that increase is down to mental health claimants, and in 1970, those mentally ill before care in the community was introduced were not classed as disabaled, so the figures are really the same, the nations health is as it always was.
indeed our disabilty rates now are less than many countries, and our disabilty claimant rate for those in and out of work is similar to other nations.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/20/61/46462479.pdf

[mugsgame]

Jeff,

Don't agree with your last post mate. I don't want to live in a Country that discriminates against people in that way.

In respect of scrapping the minium wage, it won't get more into work if you can get more on the dole. Besides the only people it will benefit will be individuals that exploit these people.

The systematic annihilation of our manufacturing base started with Thatcher. An economy built on financial services was always doomed. We need to make things, and them sell them. Easy. Jobs for jobs sake are pointless. We need quality jobs, jobs that you can support a family on. They are in very short supply and will continue to be, whatever happens.

[superfrank]

Jeff,

I totally agree with A and B, but not C - if a company cannot function without paying its workers a living wage then we can surely do without them.