Dear Misterschmoo;
Sorry! Yes, you are right; I was being bitchy. I was not trying to be humorous I was being a bitch; again, Sorry.
Sometimes it helps if a person explains but please do not think this is my excuse for bad behaviour. I said dumbass things and own them and you were right to hit back as did another poster.
Read on if you want an insight where such thoughts as “benefit bashing” comes from.
First though I do not know about a “precious furore”.
Misterschmoo; I am in my greyhair days and have worked alot and paid a lot of taxes. I guess I am not overly bright and did not think too much about where that tax money went or why it was deducted. In 1986 I got out of jail after 6 years and 7months doing hard time in Max in Australia (Manslaughter… dimished responsibilty due to mental health…) and faced disaster after disaster as everything was so big and fast and expensive… and my "family was worse than useless as for all the time I was away they seemed to have made no progress in life and led lives as Morris West put it in Shoes of The Fisherman; “lives of quiet desperation.”.
For a few days I stayed with a cousin and was amazed at how much welfare she recieved, even her toll calls were paid for, her car, etc. ( I only go on what she told me… I did not see her financials). To me she was quiet crazy living a life of luxury on others money without a care in the world. It seems that several of her friends were doing the same or trying to get preganat to any guy including me. I dodged a bullet there and many men have learnt to their great cost.
My brother got me the dole (three weeks payment, one of which I paid back) and then I got a job washing dishes and helping out in a bakery; eventually the baker broke an arm and I burnt the first batch of bread but I was off and running and in quick order began to save money, living in a tent for more than a year eating left overs until I had to improve my diet dur to all the boils I was getting. I used to walk to work, in the dark until I bought a bicycle and then a motor bike… Eventually I was financed into a business, a bakery and for the next few years felt as if I was in a dream as sleep was a rare visitor.
Of course fortune comes with misfortune and i sold up and went to university at Lincoln getting a Bachelor of resources degree… sort of a greeney degree. It was a complete waste of time as most of the degree was propaganda against working people and how the elite should tell others how to live their lives. I remember one leturer, a man turned woman, who squeaked that she/he had the right to tell private farmers how to shape their forestry blocks to a pleasing "shape"and another farmer that he could not use rock from his land to pave his farm tracks.
Anyway it was back to baking and living in a tent again. It was a time of huge interest rates so I figured I would save like hell… put it in term deposits and live off the interest. But zigs and zags… I got a hernia and spent a lot of money getting well again… and started saving again and then two more hernias and more money gone… so i gave up… saved up a little and went homeless, travelling on foot or bycycle eventually working the fruit seasons down in central.
That is an education in life if one pays attention. All the young people got their checks on a Thursday and simply letf work sometimes coming back several days later; the growers would go crazy tring to organise labor… work schedules etc. Often people would turn up and work so slowly and cause all sorts of trouble…so that eventually the growers started to bring in foreigners who wanted to work. It was always strange and still is how our unemploment rates are so high yet people from overseas could come and get jobs and earn a decent living.
Well being in Central I went witha girl who had the loan of a steel pan and we dug in a local creek and I was away (thanks Beanie). I bought a steel pan and spent all my free time panning all the local creeks and then the mountain streams…
I really was living ther life of Reilly. But then the world cup came along and freedom camping became a thing and crack downs began and all the OSH stuff had farmers facing problems if they let people on their lands and then Tenure Review and the gold price went up (and claims everywhere) an then zigs and zags for me as I met sweet talking people who could charm the snakes out of the trees ( Yes I was naiive or stupid if you like) because I had hit a jackpot panning a lot of gold and every one wanted in on ther action… some even following me so that I took round about ways to get there.
I could see the writing on the walls that living rough in a van (yes I had graduated to a van) was soon coming a thing of the past. People would hassle you and DoC would hassle you…etc. I bought a cheap house and then got a claim myself and worked as hard as always… The CRUX… I was getting older now and carrying a four inch dredge to my sites in pieces and away again took four hours on average plus 5 to 6 hours of actual dredging… and as anyone with a claim will tell you there are endless institutions with their hands in your pocket some making demands … e.g. you "must"do this or that… so as I carried my stuff each day and risked my life (working solo underwater is inherently dangerous) I looked over my shoulder for a helping hand from all the people taking my money and making demands of me.
You may know how it is to be dog tired and you see people ( I am being oblique here so as no to identify anyone) living the life of reilly off my taxes… where are these fucks I would rant as I would clear another blockage or tell another person to please leave my claim (after giving them permission to pan almost everyone wanted to set up camp on my claim… Note to self; do not evere let anyone pan on my claim; child under adult care excepted… I am simply not mentally equipped to tell the good guys from the pure evil guys).
Well I saved; and the demands became more strident and I had the good luck to get the internet and on searching for (freedom) found Stefan Molyneux;
It was him that explained that taxation is theft at the point of a gun. We are just tax cattle. If you do not pay; they will (and have; GST; here, I mean; escalate the threats util you comply or they will get the courts to order big burly men to come to your house and take your stuff and if you resist… the police come and out come the guns to shoot you dead or take you to jail.
Some call this the red pill. It made me mad as hell to finally realise that I was being completely robbed… the "government robbed me to bribe people… many of them benefits, for votes. Vote for me and I will raise benefits…etc. And I guess it is the smart ones (in a manner of speaking) who milk the system to the max. Sure, the shiny bums take my money and pretend to give services… (Environment councils have existed for decades and ever need more staff and money (taxes) … One would think that if after decades of NOT acheiving their very mandate they woulf fall on their swords in shame… but taxes get higher every year.
The whole idea of people being responsible for their own health, wealth or lack therof is gone. so many look to anyone else to do things for them… for many a hand out is their birthright… a system meant to help the truly needy is now used as a way of life.
I am content with my life… but angry at myself too for getting soft and lazy and feeling the cold so much that I prefer my home to my tent. Oh;I did cycle up past Arrowtown… it took 4 days… freezing every night trying to recapture some of my youth; I spent two days getting some dust and another 4 days getting home.
So the benefit bashing comes from seeing people milk the system to the max and it is my money and it pisses me off. Sure the target is wrong… I should be aiming at governmnets etc…but do you see that if some one takes the benefit when they are young and strong and there are jobs going begging and the trades are screaming out for people and around the lakes there are signs out wanting laborers… where are the hard working Kiwis? Why do we need thousands of Phillopines people on our dairy farms ( comes with a house a wage etc,)
It makes people weak to thrust out their hand, makes them lazy and studid and kills motivation…
I know it would be nice to live with everyone getting along all nice and aairy fairy… but we are men… we are humans… our several million years of hominid history has been one of constant warfare with a few short periods of flowering . e.g. Socrates or Impressionism… otherwise it was charging horses and slashing swords and terror and hunger and pain and MEN fighting to protect their women and their children… provide food… food dammit… something… anything to put in the gut… (lard and sugar on bread for me as a kid).
…
Even though I was a bitch… there will always be a bitch somewhere; if you want something then fight for it. All those athletes… all those hours of training… Freddie Mercury and his countless hours of training to produce perfection… in voice and stage presence… Nothing comes easy… or shouldn’t anyway for anything easy is not woth having…
With kind regards. Ivan.