talking2myself

Let Them Eat Cake

Here in the UK, we are starting to feel the heat.  Our fairly new Government is hell bent on cutting the county’s deficit and at the same times use the relative compliance of the population to achieve something the Conservatives have always advocated –the destruction of the social service structure.  Despite calls to slow down the savage cuts, this coalition government is steaming straight ahead.

There are of course many commentators going on about their favourite concerns ranging from university fees, the national health service, unemployment benefits, housing and, of course, the not to be forgotten immigration.  Many commentators are also pointing to the fact that many of the ‘well to do’ will not be ‘in it together’ like the rest of us and that it is the poorest in society that will bear the brunt of these cuts.

If you read the countless commentaries that are the mainstay of newspaper sites these days, you are likely not to wait long for comments from the “I’m alright, Jack’ brigade.  You know, the ones who believe that should you be unlucky in life to have fallen on bad times, lost a job, got sick and lost your home, that it is your fault and that you are obviously enjoying the crumbs from the tax table and not making any effort to improve your situation.   God forbid you happen to be foreign, that’s bad enough, but add the fact that you also happen to be in dire straits as well, well that’s sacrilege!

You may be wondering why I would be writing about this in this blog.  I admit,  I did consider publishing in on my news commentary site notthenews.net but this is about how society affects us.  Humans are social animals and we are happiest in our social circles.  If our society is degenerating to the point where we fail to show compassion for our fellows, it will not be long until we find that no-one has any compassion for us and that, my friends; will seriously affect your happiness.

I fail to understand that the relatively educated can stoop to the point of tarring everyone with the same brush on the strength of a minority’s wrong doings.  Yes, there are people who scam the system, rich and poor, but most people are honest and upstanding –rich and poor.  I challenge anyone to prove that there are more scammers then honest people on any social benefit in the UK, However between the politicians and the headline grabbing ‘benefit cheat’ stories, we are being made to believe this is all for the best and we will resolve our social ills by cutting social safety nets.

The title of this post is a quotation allegedly attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette during one of the famines that occurred in France during the reign of King Louis XVI, yes, him who was executed during the French Revolution.  The quote symbolises the uncaring nature of the rich for the poor which is what we are now facing.  Whilst we in the West steam ahead forcing our populations into poverty and despair, new growing countries like Brazil are recognising the dangers of this on the country’s development and stability and have introduced a social benefit, ‘La Bolsa Família’, for the poorest of their citizens.  In the time that it has been introduced – during the President Lula’s term in office, not only has it reduced poverty, Brazil’s middle class grew!

History has taught us many lessons including the French revolution and the recent food riots around the world – the latest in Mozambique – that when good people get poor and desperate they are unlikely to worry too much about the morals of their actions.  Right now, today, if we look around at our world we see the consequences of poverty and despair on the stability of any society – from the Sudan to the drug wars in Mexico.

I, personally, believe that in any civilised society, there must be a minimum standard of living for all citizens and I distrust anyone with a vested interest in making that not so.  It is from that point that we need to work out systems that weed out those who would seek to take advantage of the system, rich and poor equally.  One way would be to stop everyone’s ‘them and us’ view of government – the government is not our enemy it is supposed to be us – and to restore the sense of fair play instead of the ‘good guys finish last’ mentality that is now prevalent throughout Western mentality.

So here is a warning to those of the ‘get rid of the scroungers’ army.  The money you save in taxes due to smaller public expenditure, you will spend that and more protecting your properties, your family and those closest to you.  When you have armed guards outside your house, when you have to carry a gun in your car, when there’s barbed wire around your children’s school and you have to step over starving and dead bodies to get into your place of work – you will then have to ask how much happier are you.

May you find the balance.