Last year was the worst year since the first recession hit in 2008 in terms of redundancies and failing business. In the retail sector alone, 4000 stores closed their doors, leaving over 50'000 people jobless. This is just one area of business.
There is one thing worse in life than apathy, and that's sleepwalking. Whilst I don't want to be a harbinger of doom in this blog, what I would like to point out is that there used to be a lot of people who snugly fitted into the slot called "I'm Alright Jack". This blog is a warning if nothing else, that "I'm Alright Jack" doesn't exist any longer. Jack has done a runner.
Those who are in employment currently should seriously be counting their lucky stars. But what concerns me are the amount of those in that group, who are like mannequins coming off a production line - forward facing, looking neither left or right, with a rictus grin on their faces, and certainly not daring to look down.
I'm not able to work at the moment through illness, and if anyone in employment thinks this is a cushy number they are living in a parallel universe. Because of the level of the stress applied by ATOS, the company outsourced by the DWP to process those seeking ESA - disability benefit - I had a mental breakdown that was so severe I'm still recovering from it. So, that gives you some indication of how stressful they've purposefully made the system.
A lot of people in employment don't think that the draconian measures put in place with regard to the bedroom tax, universal credit, capped housing benefit, the evidence of league tables with regard to JSA - meaning that every Jobcentre Advisor has to eject a percentile of it's clients into penury, regardless of how hard they've been looking for work - so their income of £67 per week is reduced to £0 per week, simply to hit targets to satisfy Jobcentre managers doesn't effect them.
The fact that Government has a mantra of "We Have To End This Culture Of "Something For Nothing"".
Ponder on that statement for a moment. Then think about a man who might have worked loyally for twenty years, paid substantial PAYE, taxes and NI. His company goes under. He's rendered jobless.
Then a message is given to him loud and clear that those who claim Jobseeker's Allowance must "work" for it, when he's already paid for the right to be looked after in his time of desperate need. Was it his fault the Americans played Snap with the Sub-Prime Market? Was the deficit his fault? He's being told he shouldn't get something for nothing, when his taxes have paid for many years worth of Jobseeker's Allowance.
And now he finds he is the unwitting player in a game of Russian Roulette as every time he enters his Jobcentre, he'll have no idea whether he's for "sanctions" (no money), simply to satisfy these previously secret league tables, pushing him into the gutter.
What bothers me is that I know that too many people are blithely ignoring the warning signs, even though they're employed. But what does being employed mean? It means you have a job today. And maybe next week. And just because your own company seems to be in good in health, what about the company that owns it? We are all walking on very thin ice. And when that's the case, we need to have our eyes and ears open.
I post a fair amount of stuff on to Facebook, some of it inane, some of it relating to what I've been talking about here. And I've noticed a pattern. None of my friends or family are unintelligent people, yet they almost always comment on the banal, and never, ever comment on the articles I post up about what is actually happening, and what the threats around us are. The only exception to this is my blog.
This worries me. It isn't because I have a political view I'm trying to peddle. I don't think there's much to choose from politically. But I do have an alarm bell going off socially. And it's ringing very loudly.
Businesses don't slowly fail these days, they simply vanish without trace. So a person or a family who one month were living in relative comfort, the next month are visiting food banks. This is no exaggeration and it reflects exactly why we all need to be far more aware - if for nobody else's sakes than our family's. And if you want to go by the sensible, and sensitive view that we measure the standard of our society by how we treat the most needy and vulnerable, then something - many things - have to change. And for them to change you have to be aware of them before they hit you around the head.
Because I'm alright Jack isn't alright at all, it's downright scary, and we owe not just to ourselves but to our society and to those who have fallen to the bottom of it, to stop sleepwalking through it.
