How to catch a sloth



Tony Abbott wants to reward people for getting off the dole

Well I guess it's time to show you all that I am not that biased that I can't see an error in judgement when it faces me -- and in this case that error is coming from the Conservative side of politics. Conservative? well not this policy anyway. Abbott's welfare reform plan stinks of socialism in my book.

I understand his desire to get the capable person who has chosen to be unemployed as a career choice, off the dole and who wouldn't agree with that but really is this the way to do it.

I really do not think that he has thought about this one at all. Firstly, if a person is happy to remain on dole payments for 6 - 12 to even 24 months then I dare say that a few thousand dollars at the end of 12 - 24 months of work, will never be enough incentive for them to change their lazy ways. Think about it....., these bludgers are not interested in working for anyone at any price if it involves a commitment to responsible behaviour that most of us except and obey everyday of our lives.

Many of them live at the family home and many of those live in a house full of terminally unemployed. A lot have worked out a way to pool their welfare payments to cover the cheap rent (And in the case of the housing commission: Well, that's nothing is it?) and a lot do legal and probably illegal tasks part time for cash money.

No Tony, a good intention but a bad plan. It is not my way to see anyone rewarded for living on welfare and in fact if you want a policy that works then the answer is obvious to me. If you are genuinely unemployed for six months and can prove active searching for work, then your dole should continue for another 6 months, with regular fortnightly checks to ensure that you are applying for work, and if you fail then you are taken off the payments. If at the one year mark you are still unemployed and can show no real reason why you can not get a job, then the payments stop and you will be required to work in a job that the government puts you in, say cleaning streets, or graffiti removal or some kind of work that no one wants to do but must be done. This work will be paid of course but still at the dole rate.

I am sure that after a few weeks of that work you will find a better job or you will choose the fools way out and join the criminal world or the street. If either of those become your choice then we have a little system called the Police Force to deal with the criminally minded and the charities can carry the rest and I am sure that if someone is that deranged then they probably had a mental issue to start with and really that is a system that must also be heavily addressed for its deficiencies.

Possibly the reason why someone isn't looking for work is due to a minor mental issue and that during the checking process, if this can be somehow tested for, then a treatment program to build confidence and skills could be undertaken as well. I am sure there are quite a few long-term unemployed that have lost confidence in themselves after a few rejections in the job hunt and this can manifest into a vicious cycle that makes the next job interviewer not see the potential of the candidate before them.

There is also the social engineering issue, that if you want to be a Rock Star, a Super Model or a Movie Director or some glamorous dream career then you can do that, no worries at all. This idea and the idea that everyone's a winner all the time, has been placed in our kids heads for many years and thus has set them up as young adults who cannot deal with the realities of the real world. So I guess the problem with long term unemployed can stem from the school and home life and the values taught within. It is not wrong to want to prescribe a cure for the cause rather than the symptom but the social engineers (the Marxists) will shout you down as an old school flat-earther if your dare to let your kid lose a race and not let them feel as if they won it and not reward every little mediocrity.

It has been a generational problem in this country since the sixties and especially since the Whitlam days, that the Australian psyche has become one of a welfare dependence and this is all a part of the socialist dream and plan to ensure that the public is always dependant on the state. This is what needs to be reversed now if we are ever to truly progress.