Jolly JackPerhaps you've been lucky in life, but you shouldn't assume that everyone else has the same luck as you. Attitude can make a difference to life, but it isn't the be all and end all of it. Some people try to live their lives in a very positive and useful way and they still get shat on by others. And if people have faced a lot of hassle, sometimes they need the support and help of others to get going again. There's nothing wrong with that.
There aren't loads of jobs available and there arent masses of people moving to the UK. It was decades ago that there was a shortage of cheap labour here so the Govt & industry advertised overseas for people to come here. Most people moving here now are either refugees, or as far as Australia etc goes, young people over here temporarily while they travel the world (who incidentally are countered by young people from the UK going to Aus/NZ etc on their travels). Last figures I read there were more people leaving the UK than coming in. And if others from poorer countries are trying to get into the UK to work that's only because the wages paid in those countries are even more of a rip off than the wages paid here.
> Instead of working with one another, modern urban culture is based on
> individuals aggresively defending their own "rights", while totally ignoring
> their responsibilities as part of the community.
I agree with this, but I don't see how you can square it with the rest of what you wrote. Because you've had more choices in life does that mean you can treat others with contempt who aren't in your position? Where's the responsibility in that? All your attitude does is create division and hatred. If you have wealth or education you should share it and use it for the good of all, not sit sneering at others less well off.
>> Pay the dockers what is due, don't rip them off as this is just ripping
>> my generation off as well.
> I don't know the specifics of this case, but I have a lot of experience of
> trade unions being too greedy, and being the reason why their companies have
> gone to the wall. It cuts both ways.
> Have the dockers got some "custom & practice" rules that make the port uncompetitive ?
Trade union officials are sometimes greedy in terms of the amount they take from union coffers, but workers who go on strike are simply standing up for what is due to them. No-one wants to go thru the aggro and hardship of a strike for the hell of it. They do it because they aren't being paid enough to support their families or because they fear being thrown on the scrapheap after the company has leached their lifeblood out of them for its profits. They deserve better for all the work that they put in, after all the companies wouldn't exist and wouldn't be making profits if it wasn't for the workers.
> If you don't like your employer, resign. I've done it. Its very refreshing.
> (especially when the management gets shafted by the owners 3 months later)
Maybe, like I said, you were lucky. Would you be able to have resigned if you had a spouse, kids and a mortgage to consider. Things aren't always as easy as they may seem. Why should people have to resign because conditions are shit. Isn't it more community minded to stay and get together with others to improve conditions for the benefit of all?
>> Help the dockers and we also will vote for u.
> I won't ! Let them help themselves.
I didn't vote because i think it's all a big con to try and delude people into thinking they have some control. The only control we do have is when we stick together and fight back against those who are ripping us off, and show solidarity with people like the dockers.
> If they want higher wages, let them study at the Open University and get a new career.
This is unbeleivably patronising. First you assume that it's all their own fault, that they're ignorant and that all they need is to be educated at a university. Second you forget that even when people do study at university that doesn't mean there will automatically be a job for them (why do so many graduates end up flipping burgers at McDonald's?). Third what would happen if everyone could take up your suggestion? The system we live under now is based on priviledge and status, and if the majority of the population started getting degrees all that would happen is that a new form of exam or whatever would be devised so that those at the top retained their positions of priviledge.
> If they want an easy life at the footy and down the boozer, fine, but accept
> the going rate for manual labour and don't whinge. Its the individuals choice
> at the end of the day.
Manual labourers don't have an easy life, they have to do loads of heavy, dirty work, at usually shit rates of pay, and with no real job security. So if they want to (and not all of them do), what's wrong with relaxing at the end of all that by watching football and going to the pub.
>> Peace and Happiness ...
> If you want peace and happiness, get off your arse and help us achieve it.
If you think you'll achieve peace and happiness by making the ignorant, obnoxious and patronising comments you make then you've got your head where the sun don't shine. Take it out and have a look at the real world.
None.
