But the price of that relaxation is never having an opportunity to better yourself economically. Never to own your own property, never to live in a nice area, never to be responsible for yourself, always waiting on the next handout. If you are happy to live that lifestyle, fine. But I wouldnt be happy to live like that, Id prefer my grind.
It has been interesting coming on today (while the sun shines outside the office) to catch up on all the comments that have been added since I posted this thread.
I can assure the person that questioned me about the 22yr old getting a free house that its completely true. The only thing is, I am talking about NI in this example. I live close to the border and the example I witnessed yesterday is in the North. I know them fairly well through the said relative. But I am sure that the benefits in RoI are not far behind the North.
The same girl in question has been trying to have a baby since she was 18. She has had a prev miscarriage. Of course I am not saying that she tried to have a baby to get a free house, but I do believe that work has never been on her agenda for her life. And the father of her child does not work either, and again never has.
I do appreciate that these various people I met yesterday may have always found it hard to find a job, maybe through lack of education. But I do believe that many also have no interest in ever working, and thats something that needs to be addressed by the Gov. Surely paying them just to lie about all day doing nothing is not beneficial to them or us? I am a great believer that the unemployed could be required to do some sort of community work, even if its only a few hours a day.
And don't get me wrong, as I have no interest in living this lifestyle. At the end of the day I am far happier to have a job to go to every morning. OK so it does sometimes annoy me when I look at all the taxes I pay, but as many have said, I'd rather do that than sit around all day wasting my life.
But I have hghlighted a couple of points about that I think we need to look at.
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Never own your own property. Well the desire to "own your own property" has wrecked the lives of many wealthy and hard-working people in Ireland. So many people that might have saved well and worked hard are now so much in negative equity that they may never get out of debt. These folk I mention will not have suffered the same way.
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Never live in a nice area. Well I bought a house in what was a nice area. The street is now home to an unemployed couple (not recently unemplyed but those that simply don't work) with 6 children who generally cause a fair bit of trouble. Rough calculations suggest this family is lifting €3000 per month off this bankrupt state whilst putting next to nothing back. This is the 'nice area' that I pay a mortgage every month to live in.