Re: UK unemployment rises to 2.68m : Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:07 pm  

Dally wrote:

Pretty obvious I'd have thought.

Maybe, if you had. But as you clearly didn't . . . ?

Re: UK unemployment rises to 2.68m : Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:38 pm  

LeighGionaire wrote:

The only irony I see on this thread is so called lefties bemoaning the fact that Damo won't voluntarily become a wage slave. If he genuinely does volunteer work what makes that work less valuable to society then stacking shelves in a supermarket?

Absolutely spot on!

My voluntary work is valued by a number of respectable people in society. I’d have to say that the highlight of my voluntary work so far was the smiles on fellow rap artist faces when I arranged for they music to be played on BBC raw talent. Now there’s a chance that on the back of that they could be on the BBC Intro stage at Leeds fest. However it is a team where I volunteer and the CEO is close to closing a negotiation which will see them same artist rap at Bestival. Rob Da Bank like’s my dancing so there’s half a chance I could be the resident radio dancer for the festival.

Now I don’t just pop up at the organisation when good things are happening. Last year I helped refurbish the building by lending my hand. I have done the tea round a couple of times. Heck last year I even helped co-host the stall that we had at the breeze youth festivals. I also empty bins.

On top of all that I do a regular blog which has won an award.

Another thing I just want to confirm that when I was diagnosed with Aspergers a couple of years ago I had a breakdown. When I left school I wanted to work in travel and tourism so I pursued that career by studying a couple of BTEC’s at college which I passed with distinction and merits. After college I ended up working abroad and it really wasn’t for me. I think my autism pretty much explains why a career in that industry wasn’t realistic for me. It was a nice thought though.

Funnily enough I’m still in touch with someone (well a few people) who I worked abroad with and he had a grandson with the same condition as myself. His grandson wanted to work with his granddad but the type of working environment that we was in wasn’t suitable for people with Aspergers. I’m aware that Cronus worked in that industry and it’ll be interesting to know if he came across many people with my disability working abroad. I’m sure he’ll have the odd antidote to support his hatred towards me as there’s always exceptional cases.

If I’d got diagnosed at a young age I would have never had gone down the misguided paths that I’ve gone down on. I’d probably finished university by now and had a degree behind me.

But here I am and despite all the s**t I’ve had to endure over the years, I wouldn’t change it for the world because it’s made me the person that I am today. I could be going back into education (university this time) to pursue a career in the creative industries where I have thrived and will continue to thrive if I remain focused. But in the meantime the whole unemployment process is hard to ignore and I have often wondered if I’ll survive this year if my circumstances don’t change soon.

So people should feel free to criticise me at every opportunity that they get. It is a public forum and I can take such criticism. But what I find hard to take is years of unemployment and every visit to the job centre still overwhelms anything good I try to do.

I take some responsibility for the situation that I’m in but not full responsibility. After all I can’t control what society gives me. But people in society could work to give me something just a little bit better than unemployment.

I also want to add that there is one person on RLFANS who offered me work that I turned down. And before people ask it wasn’t from Sal. The reason why I turned that worked down is between me and that person who would not use his engagement with me as some kind of ammunition to attack me on these forums. Plus I don't want to get dragged into another debate with people who will probably now use this ammunition without knowing the full facts.

Finally anyone can deconstruct this comment at their peril. Alternatively people could try and help my situation by sending me a PM with offers of how you can help. However I’m fully aware that this is a forum and not some one stop website where the unemployed will be flooded with offers of work. A lot of us including myself come here to enjoy the company and musing of fellow rugby league fans. Some people stopped enjoying my comments ages ago and now have me on ignore which I fully understand and respect. At the end of the day I don’t even enjoy the stuff that I write at times so how could I expect others to..

Re: UK unemployment rises to 2.68m : Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:56 pm  

LeighGionaire wrote:

The only irony I see on this thread is so called lefties bemoaning the fact that Damo won't voluntarily become a wage slave. If he genuinely does volunteer work what makes that work less valuable to society then stacking shelves in a supermarket?

Yet something else that you don't understand.

Why not everyone 'volunteer' to become "a wage slave" – then there'll be nobody in work to pay for them to take that magnificently principled decision.

I doubt anyone here has a problem with his doing voluntary work (if he does). The problem people here have is – based on his own posts (and there have been many) – that he won't apply for paid jobs, sees most paid work as beneath him, and is perfectly happy to expect that those of us who do work pay for his upkeep.

He's a fine example, in other words, of the lumpen proletariat. Perhaps you should read Marx on that subject so that you actually have a clue about classical left political theory on the matter.

Re: UK unemployment rises to 2.68m : Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:59 pm  

Damo-Leeds wrote:

... Alternatively people could try and help my situation by sending me a PM with offers of how you can help...

You have had them. You chose to reject them.

Re: UK unemployment rises to 2.68m : Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:29 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Why not everyone 'volunteer' to become "a wage slave" – then there'll be nobody in work to pay for them to take that magnificently principled decision.

Your been extreme and you know it.

The problem people here have is – based on his own posts (and there have been many) – that he won't apply for paid jobs, sees most paid work as beneath him, and is perfectly happy to expect that those of us who do work pay for his upkeep.

With this comment I am now convinced that you’ve been taking lessons from the Daily Mail handbook of ‘How to slightly misrepresent what people actually say‘.

The reason why at one point I didn’t bother applying for paid jobs is because so many potential employers turned me down. Most didn’t even bother to reply to me. It was a fruitless task that I undertook for a long time and it depressed me like it depresses so many people who have the misfortune to be unemployed for so long. It’s a fact that long term unemployed causes undesirable side affects and people deal with them differently. Well this is how I dealt with mine.

Roll on 2012 I’m not wasting my new found confidence on potential employers who would more than likely choose someone else over me. So yes it is beneath me approaching these people just as it’s beneath them to employ me. It works both ways. However doing a majority of paid work isn’t beneath me unless it’s something that is morally wrong. For example I read an article the other day from 2005 where in Germany you could lose your benefits if you turned down sex work.

I also have people who I went to school with who have given me opportunities to get into criminal enterprise. That’d get me off the dole but it’d also mean prison if I got caught. I guess prison and criminal enterprise is beneath me as well.

And I’ll have you know that in the past I have lobbied the staff at the job centre to take my benefits off me because I couldn’t be bothered corresponding with those who didn’t want to give me a job. Yet they still gave me my benefits despite me insisting that they more than welcome to take them away.

You have had them. You chose to reject them.

Overall I’ve had two offers of job opportunities and one offer of paid work. It’s not like I’ve been blessed with help. More like people spending a small part of their day to have a word with me. I thanked all three people for doing just that and there’s very little else that I can do. I have my reasons why I didn’t go for them and I stick by those reasons.

Holding such things against me is been overly dramatic as it is just nit picking of the highest order.

I’m not going to brown nose anybody for opportunities and I’m certainly not going to send myself off on a fruitless job search. If people don’t want to help on the basis of what they’ve seen then I’m fine with that because you can’t please everybody in this world.

Re: UK unemployment rises to 2.68m : Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:39 pm  

Damo-Leeds wrote:

Your been extreme and you know it.
..

It's 'you're'. Why don't you spend some times improving your educational level.

Damo-Leeds wrote:

... The reason why at one point I didn’t bother applying for paid jobs is because so many potential employers turned me down...

I can't imagine why ...

Damo-Leeds wrote:

... It was a fruitless task that I undertook for a long time and it depressed me like it depresses so many people who have the misfortune to be unemployed for so long. It’s a fact that long term unemployed causes undesirable side affects and people deal with them differently. Well this is how I dealt with mine...

Oh no, it ain't nice. It ain't fun. But you're not the only individual who has been unemployed – you just happen to behave in a whinging, whining, pathetic, everybody-owes-me-a-living manner, while others actually try.

Re: UK unemployment rises to 2.68m : Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:21 pm  

There are 3 fundamental issues with the economy imo.

1. It's too easy to get social welfare and we pay out too much. This dwarfs EVERYTHING else. If we cut this significantly we could build the best schools/roads/hospitals etc in the world.

2. The banks needs splitting up into retail banks, backed by the government (and therefore effectively us the taxpayers of the UK), limited to low risk activities, and investment banks backed by no-one, who should be allowed to please themselves.

3. Socialist dinosaurs need to wake up and smell the coffee. The age of "class struggle" (whatever that was) is over. We are competing in a global market and need to work together to ensure that we can do so.

Re: UK unemployment rises to 2.68m : Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:30 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Yet something else that you don't understand.

Why not everyone 'volunteer' to become "a wage slave" – then there'll be nobody in work to pay for them to take that magnificently principled decision.

I doubt anyone here has a problem with his doing voluntary work (if he does). The problem people here have is – based on his own posts (and there have been many) – that he won't apply for paid jobs, sees most paid work as beneath him, and is perfectly happy to expect that those of us who do work pay for his upkeep.

He's a fine example, in other words, of the lumpen proletariat. Perhaps you should read Marx on that subject so that you actually have a clue about classical left political theory on the matter.

Personally I've always thought Marx's attack on the 'lumpen' rather hypocritical, seeing as he himself 'leeched' off the working class, taking hand outs from Engels who himself got the money from his rich factory owning father!

Re: UK unemployment rises to 2.68m : Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:51 pm  

LeighGionaire wrote:

Personally I've always thought Marx's attack on the 'lumpen' rather hypocritical, seeing as he himself 'leeched' off the working class, taking hand outs from Engels who himself got the money from his rich factory owning father!

Ah but at least he had a comprehension about economics and wasn't some delusional, paranoid conspiracy theorist.

Re: UK unemployment rises to 2.68m : Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:54 pm  

XBrettKennyX wrote:

The age of "class struggle" (whatever that was) is over.

It is only just beginning my friend.

XBrettKennyX wrote:

We are competing in a global market and need to work together to ensure that we can do so.

Until the oil gets even more expensive, then we are all f**ked.