[deMolay]

Those who have been on long term jobless benefits for too long in the UK could face compulsory manual labour. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11704765

[vision-master]

So, you are saying the unemployed are only worth doing manual labor?

[Ludi]

I predicted the return of the workhouse!

[vision-master]

Sounds like modern day slaverly.

PhD digging ditches while being supervised by 8th grade educated Nazi.

[Mesuge]

Chill out, for the moment

Hm, it's not uncommon on the continent either.
You are provided with gear and you are dispatched to mop up a park sidewalks for few hours per day, it's a basically safetynet stop meassure, so people don't fall to the bottom, they have to wake up each day, walking and fresh air is healthy etc.

So, in your view PhD types, which there will be minimum in such programme anyway, are going to be hurt by few hours of such community service? That's perhaps more usefull occupation, than just gaze on msm BS telly or mopping up dust of pictures taken with Blair-nazi visiting their long gone facility in the happier times.

Obviously a "luxury" version of this solution is the mercantilist/dirigist approach China has been doing during the depression with their stimulus package. Which gets people into REAL work on infrustructure, railways, nuke plants, .. FDR style. That's what the U.S. did not choose to do this time, instead bailed out fraudster fatcat syndicates, attempted dezombify crappy auto industries, and proping up imperial grand illusions via QE2-3-4-xy.

Now, the bozos like Trump/Bloomberg will run in 2012 on the promise lets erect the trade tariff barrier, for which it's too late anyway (the U.S. industry is hollowed out), plus there will be "libertins" like the Paul family, progressives like Nader-Kucinich-Gravel-McKinney, and obviously some centrist-blue dog Dem village idiot like Hitlery-Biden is going to run too. Basically, it could be 4party contest.

Hm, good chances for some quality clusterfuck.

[vision-master]

Why Manual labor?

[Mesuge]

? Read again my post, especially the first parag..
Because TPTB perhaps now even believe their gambling markets BS, and not real work and productivity drive anymore. Otherwise US-UK would get the real stimulus, the UK is at least cutting hard, incl. mil. expenditures.

[Pretorian]

So, you are saying the unemployed are only worth doing manual labor?

if they worth something else, why they arent doing it already? its been 99 weeks for crap's sake, and in England its been decades for some.

PS Anyway, VM, not that it matters but I am genuinely glad that you didnt knock your hoofs off as I thought you did earlier.

[vision-master]

Why not have every able bodied persons help job or no job?

Is this NOT like the draft? Those with means go to school, while the poor get drafted.

[Tyler_JC]

Has everyone forgotten about the New Deal?

Much of the New Deal consisted of hiring manual laborers to build public works, plant trees, etc.

[vision-master]

Another form of the elites controling the sheeple?

[deMolay]

Or as the Communists used to say. No Labour No Bread.

[vision-master]

Communists, capitalists, socialists, corporatists - it's makes no difference.

[deMolay]

What's next soup kitchen's, bread lines? Vision Master riding the rails to Florida? The Grapes of Wrath?

[vision-master]

Major solar flare hits our weakened Magnetic sphere - grid goes down for Months...

[mattduke]

I was a little confused by the title. It seems that rather than simply distributing taxpayer money to the unemployed in exchange for nothing, the idea is to require the welfare recipients to perform some type of work. Seems reasonable to me. But "no money unless you work" sounds like a job to me. So just end welfare and let them perform jobs like everybody else.

[vision-master]

Oh, I see.

1st it was long term jobless benefits (unemployment).

Now you have twisted it to Welfare.

What are you driving @

[Oneaboveall]

Has everyone forgotten about the New Deal?

Much of the New Deal consisted of hiring manual laborers to build public works, plant trees, etc.

They also hired historians to interview former slaves and produced the WPA Slave Narratives (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/). If the government wanted to hire me to do something like that, I'd be happier then a pig in slop!

[mattduke]

TO: Honorable Secretary of Agriculture
Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir;

My friend, Ed Peterson, over at Wells Iowa, received a check for $1,000 from the government for not raising hogs. So, I want to go into the "not raising hogs" business next year.

What I want to know is, in your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to raise hogs on, and what is the best breed of hogs not to raise? I want to be sure that I approach this endeavor in keeping with all governmental policies. I would prefer not to raise razorbacks, but if that is not a good breed not to raise, then I will just as gladly not raise Yorkshires or Durocs.

As I see it, the hardest part of this program will be in keeping an accurate inventory of how many hogs I haven't raised.

My friend, Peterson, is very joyful about the future of the business. He has been raising hogs for twenty years or so, and the best he ever made on them was $422 in 1968, until this year when he got your check for $1000 for not raising hogs.

If I get $1000 for not raising 50 hogs, will I get $2000 for not raising 100 hogs? I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4000 hogs not raised, which will mean about $80,000 the first year. Then I can afford an airplane.

Now another thing, these hogs I will not raise will not eat 100,000 bushels of corn. I understand that you also pay farmers for not raising corn and wheat. Will I qualify for payments for not raising wheat and corn not to feed the 4000 hogs I am not going to raise?

Also, I am considering the "not milking cows" business, so send me any information you have on that, too.

In view of these circumstances, you understand that I will be totally unemployed and plan to file for unemployment and food stamps. Be assured you will have my vote in the coming election.

Patriotically Yours,

Morgan

P.S. Would you please notify me when you plan to distribute more free cheese.

[PrestonSturges]

Sounds like modern day slaverly.

PhD digging ditches while being supervised by 8th grade educated Nazi.

More like the Khmer Rogue.

Although that sounds like a lot of places I've worked anyway.

The Brits have a tradtion of using human power in workhouses and prisons. They would have treadmills with dozens of men on them. Sometimes they powered machinery, sometimes it was just make them do pointless labor.