People not working anymore

[bgmnts]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68534537

People just can't be fucked anymore? Covid wrecked em? Economy?

Are you worried about the economy? Don't like the idea of the French coming over here with their economy and bending ours over a barrel.

According to the article it seems most people seem to be out of work because they're lazy scum long term sick. Unsure what cutting NHS waiting lists are going to do about people too depressed to get out of bed and spend 12 hours a day making some cunt millions of pounds richer, or people with MS or something.

How do you feel about the economy? Work? And the economy?

[Blumf]

Supply jobless with new socks, so they can pull them up!

[Shaxberd]

Reading between the lines, I'm not even sure that the majority of non-workers are people with long-term illnesses. The article doesn't indicate how many of the "economically inactive" are students, full-time parents/carers, or people who retired early, and I would imagine that together those people make up the bulk of the numbers.

It makes me wonder what the point of fretting over it even is. Surely there must have been many more "economically inactive" adults in the era when women were expected to stay at home to look after the house and kids, and that didn't stop the UK from being a manufacturing powerhouse.

Now we don't really make anything but our population is higher than ever. Non-workers still pay into the economy by consumption. And I keep hearing that a lot of jobs are going to be automated into non-existence within 20 years anyway.

Fuck work for work's sake. Give us better work and less of it.

[Icehaven]

I find most people who moan about the unemployed being lazy and feckless have relatively well-paid jobs they mostly enjoy, which they've managed to get through a combination of access to a good education early in life, familial support, opportunity and good old fashioned luck. They have little concept of how hard it can be to achieve that without some or all of those things, or how enthusiastic they'd be about working if they had to work long hours in miserable service jobs for minimum wage that, crucially, had little to no prospect for advancement and promotion.
As for anyone in government moaning about them they can fuck right off because with a few exceptions they've almost definitely been on a gravy train since the day they were born so have no idea what it's like for people who actually have to make their own way in the world, particularly as it's got harder and harder to actually do so largely thanks to, well, them.

[Psybro]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/11/is-labour-about-to-prune-plan-to-boost-workers-rights

The people running the economy are purposely choosing to have a high level of insecure, poorly rewarded roles to save on capital expenditure and long-term investments.

A lot of people are choosing to take their chances rather than engage with it.  It's a direct consequence of how employers are choosing to do things, not voodoo.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I don't think this is a chiefly British phenomenon, there's parallels with the US panicking about things like 'quiet quitting' (work to rule) and 'the great resignation'.

Even in China there's things like the Tang Ping movement.

[jamiefairlie]

I find most people who moan about the unemployed being lazy and feckless have relatively well-paid jobs they mostly enjoy, which they've managed to get through a combination of access to a good education early in life, familial support, opportunity and good old fashioned luck. They have little concept of how hard it can be to achieve that without some or all of those things, or how enthusiastic they'd be about working if they had to work long hours in miserable service jobs for minimum wage that, crucially, had little to no prospect for advancement and promotion.
As for anyone in government moaning about them they can fuck right off because with a few exceptions they've almost definitely been on a gravy train since the day they were born so have no idea what it's like for people who actually have to make their own way in the world, particularly as it's got harder and harder to actually do so largely thanks to, well, them.

" I find most people who moan about the unemployed being lazy and feckless have relatively well-paid jobs they mostly enjoy, "

You think? In my experience the most bitter accusers are those in poorly paid soul destroying jobs they really hate.

[Shaxberd]

I suppose one of the chief concerns of the money men is "growth", and one of the ways you get that growth is more workers. Every potential unit of labour not labouring is less growth. The challenge is that growth can't go on indefinitely in a finite world, and perhaps we're feeling it straining at its limits. (Or maybe it always feels like this, Marx was predicting capitalism would collapse under its own weight 150 years ago and it's still shuffling on.)

[shoulders]

Completely ignoring Long Covid and not funding adequate research into the condition then scratching your heads when hundreds of thousands of additional people are out of formal employment.

[Vodkafone]

I wonder how many of the 'economically inactive' of working age are boomers who bought a house for 20p in 1988 and now get a month's money by letting it out, along with however many other properties they've acquired through hard work being born at the right time?

I can think of a very effective way of getting them back to work that old Joe Stalin would approve of.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

for decades people were told to work hard not because of their monthly wages but because there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, now not only are monthly wages lower than ever and often barely enough to survive on, no one their right mind believes that if you put your nose down and work hard itll pay off in the end

you'd have to be deluded to think that the "merit" in "meritocracy" ever applied to how hard you work and how much of your time you sacrifice for someone else's income

[Sebastian Cobb]

I suppose one of the chief concerns of the money men is "growth", and one of the ways you get that growth is more workers. Every potential unit of labour not labouring is less growth. The challenge is that growth can't go on indefinitely in a finite world, and perhaps we're feeling it straining at its limits. (Or maybe it always feels like this, Marx was predicting capitalism would collapse under its own weight 150 years ago and it's still shuffling on.)

A business can 'grow' by doing more with less through squeezing workers or more efficient automation, or it can exploit cheaper labour elsewhere, this'll both show up as economic growth but add to unemployment stats.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

consumerism is also failing as a motivation for growth and work since so much of the stuff we're expected to want now is shit and increasingly detached from the status/upward mobility ratrace it was previously stitched into

good luck convincing the masses to slave ten hours a day to save up ten grand a year for boring fucking package holidays and dogshit DIY projects when there's Elden Ring and vibrators out there in the world and you can emulate Mario 64 on a calculator watch that also plays every Miles Davis track at perfect fidelity and teaches you hiragana

[Video Game Fan 2000]

the thing about taking all your economics from the 1970s is that in the 1970s ravioli was aspirational

[Shaxberd]

A business can 'grow' by doing more with less through squeezing workers or more efficient automation, or it can exploit cheaper labour elsewhere, this'll both show up as economic growth but add to unemployment stats.

Yes, I was thinking that there is a bit of a clash between the tech-optimist belief that automation is the future and the comparatively old-fashioned idea that as many people need to be in work as possible, both of which seem to coexist as common notions in the business community.

If AI delivers on its promises, many people will have more time on their hands. This is not necessarily a bad thing, even for Tories - Cameron's "Big Society" notion was all about filling in gaps (in cut public services) through volunteering, but who has the time to volunteer if they're working all day? Shorter working weeks could give people more time to participate in their community.

There's already been trials showing many workplaces do just fine - may even get more productive - with four-day weeks, and the only thing holding them back is that bosses don't like it.

Even the eight hour working day had to be fought for. Bosses would have our every waking moment if they were allowed to, even against all logic and reason that people work better when they're not fucking knackered.

[Alberon]

It's fairly obvious we're well into the zombie phase of capitalism. It's all being propped up to keep it running and it's reached the point where no one is allowed to be ill. It's like end stage Soviet communism where the exortations from the leaders diverged further and further from reality.

Something will give eventually. The question is how bad that will be for us when it happens.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

assisted dying to be introduced for incurable state of "not wanting to work three jobs for 950 quid a month"

[Sebastian Cobb]

assisted dying to be introduced for incurable state of "not wanting to work three jobs for 950 quid a month"

i reckon even now I'd end up digitasing myself from a bout of existential ennui if they'd let me

almost certainly on a tuesday

[Jerrykeshton]

I work, but if I had enough of my own money to do nothing (investments, landlord, wife who would keep me) I don't think I would be bothered either.

What do the government expect? They've made childcare unaffordable (removing people from the economically active pile), houses are so expensive a significant section of society will never own their own, and they are making it expensive to own cars, which was a status symbol worth having.

I'd imagine a substantial amount of young people now faced with a work from home job that is so low paid they can't afford to get their own place, parents with mostly paid off homes(low rent), a lack of opportunites for mad nights out and the ability to find dates/sex/partners through apps are happy to do a little freelance when needed to top up the kitty .

[Emotional Support Peacock]

I wonder how many of the 'economically inactive' of working age are boomers who bought a house for 20p in 1988 and now get a month's money by letting it out, along with however many other properties they've acquired through hard work being born at the right time?

I can think of a very effective way of getting them back to work that old Joe Stalin would approve of.

Boomer Kulak

[Sebastian Cobb]

and they are making it expensive to own cars, which was a status symbol worth having.

I dunno, the current state of the auto industry with 3 year PCP and leases working out equal to or better than buying seems pretty horrific and something that should be clamped down on really given just making the thing releases a fair bit of CO2. Compare to the 90's when cars were still status symbols but people tended to hold on to them for longer unless they were company vehicles.

[Butchers Blind]

In my day you stayed in bed and didn't look for work

[Psybro]

I think there were a few people quitting work because they were under the illusion they would get an easy ride under a Labour government, but thankfully Rachel Reeves has put a stop to that one.

[The Dog]

Seriously don't think I can work anymore. Got so much to do but I just sit staring at my computer. Trying to will myself into a coma.

[Ferris]

A thought experiment: instead of going to work and doing your little emails or whatever the fuck, you were told you had to set an elephant on fire. You have to set this elephant, Jumbo the Elephant, on fire and if you don't then you lose your house, your ability to buy food, and you and your kids have to go begging on the street. Here are some matches, pay for your own jerry cans.

In that scenario, maybe you could convince yourself the gasoline doesn't smell that bad. Maybe the elephant was a bad elephant so doing this isn't so bad really. Perhaps your employer graciously allows you to set the elephant on fire from home twice a week.

Doesn't matter - at its root, it is all still bad, unnatural and wrong and deep down we all know this.

That is my approach to work - I am being compelled to do it against my will and am basically powerless in this late stage capitalist society to stop it, so fine, you got me - I'll waste precious life on earth in a grey office (and to be fair, I do quite a lot of good these days in my job). You win, capitalism, but I certainly won't like it and I'm going to make my life/tasks as easy possible, and if you want me to go above and beyond the hours you're paying me for you're on another planet.

[lauraxsynthesis]

Doesn't matter how much workers are immiserated, the capitalist class in the UK refuses to invest to boost productivity. Should I give myself a bonus so I can buy a 5th house or should I pay for some innovation that won't pay off for 4 years by which time I'll have gone on to another company or retired to spend more time with my money? 5th house it is!

https://www.ft.com/content/eddeb6bc-e469-4177-a2fa-21e9e80ab97e


Yesterday our CEO told us we're getting a 3% pay rise aka 8?% pay cut compared to inflation. And another longstanding colleague is leaving the organisation and taking her knowledge, skills etc with her. My job is only funded until sometime next year after which who knows if I'll ever work again as by then storms and sea level rises might have knocked out my whole sector. Can get a job filling sandbags, I guess.

[Memorex MP3]

Between 2017 and 2022 my salary went from 30k to 70k, my living expenses hardly changed and my ability to buy a place hardly changed.
Between 2022 and 2023 my living expenses shot up massively, my salary remained static with my workload increased massively, with my last job being the primary reason my last few years have been so miserable.

There's not a lot of appeal to rush back to that shite. On a purely pragmatic level it probably makes more sense to take time out to retrain for something more stable or with higher pay and sort out all the shit I've been neglecting too.
If I didn't have the savings I do and my parents home wasn't a death sentence (located in the middle of nowhere, lotsa family drama that has and would consume my life) I'd have just moved back home. Have a couple of friends who have done and I dunno if I could say they seem happier but they seem less miserable.

[Pranet]

My job is going to shit, but one of the two main reasons I'm sticking with it for now is because it is 4 days a week (the other is that I can walk to it).

I am terrifically poor but man the thought of doing 5 days is miserable.

So yeah obviously most people if they don't have to work aren't going to, most jobs are shit.

[Vodkafone]

the thing about taking all your economics from the 1970s is that in the 1970s ravioli was aspirational

Particularly if you were Reginald Iolanthe Perrin.

[Blue Jam]

Britain's workforce officially too fucked to show.