Disclaimer: I don’t fully agree with the viewpoint I’m about to describe.
From the rioters and looters’ perspectives, this is basically happening already. Income inequality is rising, as is wealth disparity, and with the cuts the coalition government has put in place they must feel like they’ve been left to rot. From their POV, what’s to be gained by playing the stacked deck? They’ll lose out the same way anyway.
So people should acknowledge the game is stacked, but play by the rules, for fear things could get worse?
Personally, if I was in a shitty enough situation, I’d be prepared to take my chances on that bet. I’d certainly be prepared (for example) to join in a crowd looting goods that I’d never be able to afford under normal circumstances.
Which to my mind suggests the problem isn’t a lack of support for the unemployed; it’s too much support. Children look around them and see people living the life of Riley on benefits, with perhaps a bit of petty crime on the side to provide an additional income. They don’t need qualifications, they’re never going to apply for a job because why should they? The state will look after them. And if they’re a bit short of cash and can’t quite afford a new games console or TV, well they can just chuck a rock through the window of the nearest electrical shop and the police will just stand and watch.
Sure. Just because the “deck is stacked” - meaning that the already-wealthy have a better shot than everyone else - doesn’t mean that your best shot isn’t to “play by the rules” - that is, attempt to achieve success through education, saving, hard work, etc., rather than looting and burning.
The obvious problem with looting and burning is that it is somewhat self-limiting as a lifestyle choice. It relies on stuff being readily available and unguarded to be looted and burned. Since that stuff doesn’t grow on magic consumer goods trees …
This Public Service Announcement brought to you courtesy of the Daily Mail.
Anarchy in the UK!
Since high-tailing it out of the UK, are you still able to get the Guardian?
I guess I could online. Tend to get my news from the World Service. I also am much more likely to read the Telegraph.
Would you say that underlying causes were properly discussed after 1985?
Good post by Broomstick above. I don’t think it can be fully explained though. Listen to these two drunk women. Fucking idiots, completely divorced from reality.
There are no easy answers. The right wingers will say benefits have given people an inflated sense of entitlement, while the left-wingers will say not enough has been done to fight poverty.
The truth is that benefits have given people in inflated sense of entitlement while the stratification of the economy has eroded their realistic alternatives.
I don’t know if the inner-city schools there are the same as some of the ones here (Canada), but when my friend student-taught at one, she was shocked to learn that university entrance courses are not even offered.
I realize that attendance is a hard enough problem at the basic course level, but that is like giving up on the kids before they even start.
I don’t agree with rioting and looting, but I also can’t imagine being so frustrated by a system that show you nothing but more and more bleakness with no way to escape. People have to have hope.
That wouldn’t be an issue over here, the schools have to offer the standard qualifications, and that is all that is required to go to university. However, I don’t know how good the schools are in the area. Over-crowding and disruptive pupils can drag down educational standards, and make it harder to employ good teachers.
I agree mostly.
I disagree that alternatives are not realistic; yes it has made their situation much harder but not impossible.
Don’t insult me, I wouldn’t buy that rag unless all other toilet tissue had been looted. I’m a fully paid-up liberal (yes I even read the Guardian) but the welfare state combined with an open immigration policy simply doesn’t work in its current incarnation.
Partly, and it is a wonderful education.
The other main aspect of being at Eton is the quite enormous social capital you acquire - the fees repaid a hundred or a million fold:
Fwiw, very interesting to see the change in mood in south London today, lots and lots of people walking up to police and making sure they’re ok, an awful people saying that’s enough and it’s time to get out there and stop the kids.
Fuck the London rioters. What, they don’t get enough free shit already? What a beautiful way to repay those whose hard work affords them the accommodation they possess, and the benefits, emergency services, and educational programs they have access to; beat them, rob them, burn down their shops and terrify them into self-imposed house arrest. They can all go get fucked.
The only concrete observation one can make of the riots is that there are a lot of scumbags in this country who need a fucking good kicking. Fuck their deprivation. If these indolent pigs put one tenth of one percent of the effort into policing their own communities as they’re currently putting into thieving, terrorizing, and throwing petrol bombs at police then maybe, just maybe, there’d be a bit more potential for upward mobility. But no, they’d rather languish in their shithole council estates in a fog of weed smoke, throwing jewelled fists at anything that looks like an opportunity. They can all get fucked again
I hope that tonight’s the night the police finally break out the tear gas and rubber bullets. I hope the ringleaders are arrested, convicted, paraded on national television, and are put to work as a chain gang clearing the debris while dressed in humiliating and emasculating outfits, before being dragged off to prison to, once again, get fucked. Interpret that how you will.
Yeah, and no doubt they drive up in a Cadillac or the British equivalent to pick up their check. :rolleyes: I don’t believe for a moment that they are “living life of Riley”. And I find it really implausible that making the poor poorer would make them less desperate and angry.
LOL. Some people are so plain thick it’s difficult to imagine how they get through life.