the Austerity Con or Con

[scottycelt]

Sorry, scotty, but that cannot be so, since I have not so guessed and am quite unable to do so, hence my questions to you (to which you have posted as above rather than make any attempt to answer them)...

Well again (and here's the "hidden" clue!) you claim I didn't give an answer yet, at the same time, you refer to my post in response to your question. That post contained the answer, ahinton.

An answer is simply an answer however much the questioner may tamely plead a rather curious inability to recognise it, or, much more credibly, is not the one expected or desired by the person posing the question!

So I've posted this answer to you once again, ahinton ... please save it on your computer for future reference to hopefully avoid any further misapprehensions regarding the perceived non-existence of such answers!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

nuff

[eighthobstruction]

....said....

[Serial_Apologist]

A 21-year old was on a phone-in this morning, saying she was being rejected for jobs as being overqualified. This was a programme in which others had already been hung out to dry for daring to question the sheer generosity of a jobs market that offers them work of any kind, as this will be their only way to be seen as qualifying for the career for which they got degrees. It then turned out that a survey has revealed that 25% of those going for "any job rather than none" are in the same job 3 years later.

Thinking about this afterwards (as one does), it struck me that the overqualified person "lucky" enough to get any job at all, is probably doing that job at the expense of someone appropriately qualified; I haven't yet heard anybody from government or opposition front benches, or anywhere for that matter, point out this rather obvious fact.

[eighthobstruction]

It's a terrible balls up....I really feel for these young people....(my goodness we were a lucky lucky generation with so many things)....

[ahinton]

Well again (and here's the "hidden" clue!) you claim I didn't give an answer yet, at the same time, you refer to my post in response to your question. That post contained the answer, ahinton.

An answer is simply an answer however much the questioner may tamely plead a rather curious inability to recognise it, or, much more credibly, is not the one expected or desired by the person posing the question!

So I've posted this answer to you once again, ahinton ... please save it on your computer for future reference to hopefully avoid any further misapprehensions regarding the perceived non-existence of such answers!

Not for the first time, I've scoured your post for those answers that you say you've reposted in the above, to no avail. Never mind.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's a terrible balls up....I really feel for these young people....(my goodness we were a lucky lucky generation with so many things)....

Mind you, the "overqualification" one has been around for quite some time. I myself got clobbered with it back in '97 when going for positions taxpayers' money had been granted to me to requalify towards after 20 years in a previous "secure" job. Now that grants have been replaced by student loans, that particular accusation, that I used up one of the last local authority grants, without managing to get a job commensurate with the taxpayer's generosity, can no longer be made against today's young qualifiers.

I wonder how much longer this lot can continue depending on the claim that there are plenty of jobs out there if people are prepared to look for them... Or will people rumble them before the general election?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not for the first time, I've scoured your post for those answers that you say you've reposted in the above, to no avail. Never mind.

Some people confuse a "reply" with an "answer".

[ahinton]

Some people confuse a "reply" with an "answer".

Evidently so although, in this particular instance, the possibility of anything being lost in the translation seems especially remote...

[scottycelt]

It's a terrible balls up....I really feel for these young people....(my goodness we were a lucky lucky generation with so many things)....

Spot on 8th!

I often think I must have belonged to the 'jammiest' generation in history. Plenty of jobs around when leaving school, much more relaxed working atmosphere, proper company pensions, no conscription and wars to bother about (at least none that affected me and my pals), best pop music ever, cheap package hols abroad, Watneys Red Barrel (), mini-skirts, oh, I could go on and on and ... but, never fear, I won't!

The post-war 'Baby Boomers' were indeed a very lucky bunch compared to preceding and later generations.

[Serial_Apologist]

Spot on 8th!

I often think I must have belonged to the 'jammiest' generation in history. Plenty of jobs around when leaving school, much more relaxed working atmosphere, proper company pensions, no conscription and wars to bother about (at least none that affected me and my pals), best pop music ever, cheap package hols abroad, Watneys Red Barrel (), mini-skirts, oh, I could go on and on and ... but, never fear, I won't!

The post-war 'Baby Boomers' were indeed a very lucky bunch compared to preceding and later generations.

And it's well worth remembering that previous generations fought the powers-that-be for those better conditions and greater freedoms; without them, and the Liberal and Labour parties, and trade unions, as they once were, the capitalists would never have yielded anything - and without their spirit being rekindled, it will be all downhill. The rich don't give a toss for the ordinary folks - only so far as they can make money out of us, one way or another. So, a bit of class struggle from our side of the barricades is to be hoped for.

[scottycelt]

And it's well worth remembering that previous generations fought the powers-that-be for those better conditions and greater freedoms; without them, and the Liberal and Labour parties, and trade unions, as they once were, the capitalists would never have yielded anything - and without their spirit being rekindled, it will be all downhill. The rich don't give a toss for the ordinary folks - only so far as they can make money out of us, one way or another. So, a bit of class struggle from our side of the barricades is to be hoped for.

... yes that was one obvious downside of our generation which I 'sloppily' omitted ... frequent and pointless wildcat strikes, not in any way harming 'the bosses', but simply causing misery and hardship to 'ordinary folks'.

That is one area of life where later generations can undoubtedly consider themselves rather more fortunate.

[eighthobstruction]

Mind you, the "overqualification" one has been around for quite some time. I myself got clobbered with it back in '97 when going for positions taxpayers' money had been granted to me to requalify towards after 20 years in a previous "secure" job. Now that grants have been replaced by student loans, that particular accusation, that I used up one of the last local authority grants, without managing to get a job commensurate with the taxpayer's generosity, can no longer be made against today's young qualifiers.

I wonder how much longer this lot can continue depending on the claim that there are plenty of jobs out there if people are prepared to look for them... Or will people rumble them before the general election?

Oh yes there's jobs out there for STRIVERS....that is a word that gets RIGHT UP MY NOSE (I have to remove the ferret to get it in there)....

[Serial_Apologist]

... yes that was one obvious downside of our generation which I 'sloppily' omitted ... frequent and pointless wildcat strikes, not in any way harming 'the bosses', but simply causing misery and hardship to 'ordinary folks'.

That is one area of life where later generations can undoubtedly consider themselves rather more fortunate.

On the contrary. The fact that the ending of those "wildcat strikes", to use your right wing tabloid description, brought no solutions to the problems endemic to capitalism, but rather has led to Britain's workforce subsequently undergoing cuts in salaries and the longest working hours in the EU, rather gives the lie to the notion that industrial disputes have ever been the cause of Britain's economic decline.

[scottycelt]

On the contrary. The fact that the ending of those "wildcat strikes", to use your right wing tabloid description, brought no solutions to the problems endemic to capitalism, but rather has led to Britain's workforce subsequently undergoing cuts in salaries and the longest working hours in the EU, rather gives the lie to the notion that industrial disputes have ever been the cause of Britain's economic decline.

Britain's not in economic decline relative to most of her peers and hasn't been for a couple of decades at least, thanks in some part to the huge reduction in wildcat strikes.

Britain's problems were (are) due to weak and self-serving managements rather than the capitalist (mixed economy) system itself which, like it or loathe it, has now been embraced by former communist states, which were being left further and further behind economically.

I certainly avoid right-wing and left-wing tabloid propaganda sheets and particularly the Daily Mail and Socialist Worker.