No ID, no checks… and vouchers for sob stories: The truth behind those shock food bank claims | Mail Online

No ID, no checks… and vouchers for sob stories: The truth behind those shock food bank claims | Mail Online.

when the trussel trust said demand for free food has increased enormously and concluded that govt cuts are having a huge impact and making people starve,  i was a bit sceptical. they concluded this from the increased numbers of food parcels and increased numbers of people wanting coming to them. but knowing human nature if something is given away free, i dont see why anyone would refuse. so i can understand people coming to get it even though they are not in dire need. it is free food after all.

this investigation simply shows it happening. the trust is likely to give parcels to anyone who says they want it, and not investigate too closely whether they really are penniless. it is not necessary. they are a charity and anyone who says they want it should get it. to start imposing rules and allowing some to get it and others not, because of a definition of what is poverty and what is not, is really not a concern of a charity supposed to help the needy. by definition anyone who says they want it, is needy.

but the trust is wrong to conclude from this that the govt changes on social security is causing it. too many other factors to heed , so there is no clear cut cause and effect to warrant the conclusion.

the trust should just do its work and let the politics alone.

but the trust is a franchise. it seems it charges organisations £1500 to join and a regular yearly subscription. but that is what always happen when something is set up as a charity with good intentions at first. business practices take over and they are run as a business. it is inevitable of course. and it becomes self propagating, no charity i know ever makes itself redundant. which by rights should be its aim. if ur aim is to reduce poverty, u should be working hard to make your charity redundant, because that would mean u have defeated poverty. but i cannot imagine any charity wanting to do that…

ignorance, incompetence, indifference

London

I have often said poverty is the result of ignorance. and have stopped at that.

But reading this article,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/9821278/Its-not-poverty-thats-fattening-its-the-bad-eating-habits.html

It would seem most things in life is caused by ignorance, incompetence and indifference.

Take obesity for eg. It is not because u are poor that u are fat.
In the past, we can tell someone is poor by seeing how thin they look.

But now, it seems you can tell how poor they are by how fat they are.

The rich knows that fat is bad for their health, so they stay thin, or try to, even though being rich they can eat as much as they like.

Whilst what has changed to make poor people fat? It seems Nixon is at fault. He tried to do good by making the manufacturers reduce fat in their products, but as a unintended consequence of this, the food tasted awful without the fat, so they add suger to it… that made it tastier.

And so we get our present situation with processed foods… full of suger.

And that seems to play havoc with our insulin levels, which makes us store fat. The body can make fat out of carbohydrates and store it, so even if u stop eating fatty food, u can still be fat just by eating a lot of carbohydrates, like potatoes.

So ignorance is the main factor here.

What about competence, well u can know all the facts about food, but if u don’t know how to cook, u will still end up buying ready made foods as your own cookng is inedible.

What about indifference, well u might know all about it, and are a competent cook, but if u are too lazy to bother, and are indifferent whether u get fat, your knowledge and your competence wont make u avoid being fat, or poor for that matter.

All these factors can be applied to making u poor or rich.

Firstly, lack of knowledge, ignorance; u don’t know how to be rich. You lack knowledge how to make wealth.

Then even if u do know, u lack competence on how to bring it about.

So u get people starting a business and failing because they just lack competence at running a business.

Finally, indifference; u may like being rich, but u don’t really want to work at it…. You are too lazy to do anything about it. You may like and say u like being rich, but deep down u are really not that bothered about it to do something about it.

Finally, u might really be indifferent about wealth… u just don’t care to be rich. U might say, don’t be silly, everyone wants to be rich. And even those who say they don’t want to be rich, secretly wish to be.

I can tell u , there are plenty of people who have no desire to be rich. By that I mean having so much money all their needs and desires are taken care of, and still have too much money left over.

There are plenty of us who don’t care for that at all.Tthere are lots of things that a lot of people dont want. being famous is another example, u might think everyone wants to be famous, but dont u believe it.

The really clever people are those who are rich without being famous. That way no one knows and they dont get hassled whenever they go out, and no one tries to kidnap them or their loved ones. 

 

 

 

life is nice in london

London

12.1.13 saturday 

I have noticed that if u click the follow button on each person’s blog a box comes up asking u to give them your email address and it says u will be notified by email.

That scares me off, because I don’t really want my email to be clogged by these notifications.

But I noticed that if I click on the follow button at the top of the page in the task bar, than it comes up in my blog’s reader, and I can chose not to have email notification. And I can read all the blogs I follow in the reader.

That is much better.

Have you found this out too?

Also I wonder if I edit my posts will they send a email notification to followers every time I click the publish button? That would be real irritating to the followers surely? At least I would find it irritating to have my email box clogged up by many notifications of the same post just because small changes have been done.

The independent newspaper has a report of one of their reporters to live on £31 a week, which is what is left after rent, bills, etc have been paid for.

He concludes he could not live on that. But seeing what he spends it on, I believe it is because he is hopeless at budgeting.
I live on £50 a month for all my living expenses.
So if I can do so why cannot he? The answer is he does not know how to budget.
Just one example will illustrate the point.
He spent £8.60 on two trips on the tube, when he already has a bus weekly card. Why does he take the tube?

And then he buys processed foods like pizza, ham.

If he were to just buy one uncooked chicken ( £5), uncooked minced beef400mg (£1.17), 15eggs (£1.50), and veg, oats, sultanas,and rice, pasta, milk powder and bread will feed him very well for the week.

Here is what he bought instead.

Saturday
Milk, coffee, pasta, chopped tomatoes, an onion , a carrot, cooking bacon =£4.78

Sunday
Pizza £2.50
Bread and ham for sandwiches £3.60

Monday
Spend £5.77 for ingredients for a chilli that will last him 3days. (I wonder what he bought? A basic minced beef + fresh tomatoes (6 for 68p)+canned kidney beans, will not cost that much.) Maybe he bought cans of chilli con carne. That would be expensive.
He bought basic cornflakes included in that total.

Tuesday
Nothing on food

Wednesday
Nothing on food

Thursday
£2.20 on frozen pizza

Friday
Dinner £3.63

I think any decent cook will be able to show him how to eat well on less money. So it is not poverty that is his problem, it is ignorance. I bet no one in the comments in that article will point this out.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/life-on-benefits-the-starving-of-the-11-million-8448685.html 

I have seen it many times even amongst my friends who think they are frugal. 

My friends would buy canned sauces, when it is so much cheaper and quicker and easier to just use fresh ingredients and make your own.
U want a tomato sauce, use 3 fresh tomatoes, and water. Add herbs or whatever u have in the kitchen, pepper, etc. and u have a lovely tomato sauce just like that. If u want to thicken it, just added cornflour dissolved in a bit of water.

So with curry sauce, instead of just buying a can or bottle of curry sauce, use curry powder and add water, garlic, ginger, or whatever herbs u got and that is it, curry sauce. Add a bit of suger if u like to enhance the taste.

I have long ago stopped buying pasta sauce from the bottle, or passata, or bottled curry sauce. They are very expensive for what they are, merely water, with a touch of curry powder, or a bit of concentrated tomato paste. And they will be very salty and sugery as well.

Do u know that passata , which used to be 29p is now 55p? And that is the Tesco basic one, fancier brands cost even more.

It is only concentrated tomato paste and water. With a bit of vinegar.
The branded ones made from real tomatoes are very expensive. U might as well just buy fresh tomatoes and make them yourself.

Life is really very nice for me here in London.

I take the bus to the gym and use the showers as well as do the machines. And without much effort I can see me bulging out with muscles in all the right places.

And I washed with that radon orange and tea smelling gel , and it is a really nice smell. Funny how the smell can make u want to use it. Those marketing guys really know how to attract people to buy.

Even I was tempted to buy it just for the smell. Haha.

My friend who is coming to visit me called and told me that he managed to get national express bus fares for £5 one way, both directions. They charge £2 now for booking. That has gone up rather a lot from what it was before £1. But the general cost is reasonable at £12 return. Esp on such short notice.

It wont tempt me to go to Bournemouth but then seaside towns don’t expect much business in winter.

In winter, London is the best destination to visit.

And he is ok with no heating in the flat. he said he don’t have heating in his place either. So that is good to find a kindred spirit who don’t want heating.

We should form a club of likeminded guys like us.

 

 

 

 

social benefits

London

In this country, uk, people get housing benefits. It seems there is a law that comes into effect in april 2013, where if u have a spare room that is not occupied for 13wks, u will have 14% deducted off the benefits. it is aimed at freeing space. people with extra rooms will move to a smaller place and so reduce their rents at the same time, as free up that space. it does not work in practise as one bedroom flats are in much shorter supply than 2bedrooms. maybe it will work if u make them share with others on benefits. so instead of giving a person a one bed room flat, let two share a 2bedroom flat. 

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/allanmassie/100067590/the-spare-bedroom-tax-is-mean-oppressive-and-a-politically-daft-gift-to-the-left/

So quite a number of comments from people saying this is a tax and saying how horrible it is.

But hang on, does it mean that council will approve u to rent out that spare room? At the moment u cannot rent it out if u are a council tenant; but I understand u can do so if u get permission from council. So this tax might be an incentive to kick people into getting that permission and rent out the spare room.

In London, u can easily get a lot more renting out that spare room and it will almost pay off the rent u pay council for the whole flat. u can easily get £650 a month for the spare room, and council flat for a two bedroom is likely to be about £800 a month or so.

And u can make them share the utility bills and other bills too.

Sounds good don’t u think? So why are people against it?

The catch may be that if u are claiming benefit , u wont be paying rent on that flat. so maybe council will not approve u to rent out that spare room.

or more likely, council will take all the rent u get from the lodger by reducing your benefits by that amount. maybe the only way is to just let it out to someone who will only pay your expenses.  at least then u will have no bills to pay to live there.

http://mickgrant.org/2012/12/23/bedroom-tax/

That is the trouble when u have handouts to anyone. Instead of being grateful for the help, they get used to it and take it for granted and when u start to limit the amount they get they get angry. It is a fact that we all feel it worst when something that we have is taken from us, than when something new is given to us.

So I think govt should be honest and say to those on benefits, that it is a favour that society is giving them, other tax payers are paying for their benefits, and so don’t be angry if there are limits placed on the amount they can get. So govt should tell people that if they want that extra space they will have to pay for it. And let them decide if they wish to move to a smaller place or not. It is already wonderful that society provides them with a place to stay and pays them to live in a place rent free.

That way u wont get a person staying in a 3bed place and preventing others who need that space from moving in to a place that is far too big for a single person.

I think it is good to help the poor, but to place a limit on it. That way they don’t get to like the freebies so much that they have no incentive to go out and better themselves. Make it clear to everyone that the help is a safety net , not one that substitutes for life.

It will really help the poor rather than trap them in poverty where the moment they earn a bit more, they get penalised.

I sometimes get so bemused by life. We in uk have a social benefit system that for some people is so generous , and is so uneven in who gets help or not, and in other countries, there is no help at all.

That is life I guess.

Added. 30.12.12 sunday. 

Jordan replied to my comments and wrote,
You’re assuming that someone is just going to come magically by to rent a room in these people’s houses. It’s not just about one room in a house it is about someone’s home. A person’s home is a sacred thing.

I suppose I must be a hard hearted fellow, because I laughed when I read that.
Here in London, it is v easy to rent out a spare room. And what is that about a person’s home being a sacred thing? It is not a church. U can share a home, and in not selfishly keeping the home to yourself you can at the same time get income from the rent.

But I have noticed that so many people think helping the poor means making them helpless victims who cannot help themselves and giving out handouts that make they even more helpless and reliant on the aid.

Surely helping poor people to change their attitudes about money and opportunities and change their view that they are helpless and being like children,they expect always to be given things.

As children, u expect your parents to give u things, without u working for it. And that attitude is being adopted in all these organisations to aid the poor. They are given things like they are children… they remain passive, and just receive.

And like children, they will keep expecting more and more to be given to them.

It would be good to change people’s attitude to life and money and to teach them to see opportunities for increasing their income rather than just provide them with things.

It is that age old wisdom of teaching them to catch fish rather than give them a fish.

Have u noticed that all charities give people fish instead of teaching them to catch fish?

In the case of those with extra room, council should allow them to share the flat with another so that they can half their rent. Why in this country a single person is given a 2 bed flat all to themselves when it would be cheaper and more people will be housed if they share.

If I were in charge, I would only provide a room (not a house or a flat)to anyone who is homeless. So if u are a family u share with others in a house. U will just have to live with others and get along with them. That way no one gets to use a whole house to themselves even though they are only one person, the family having grown up and gone away. If u are not using those rooms, council can send a person to live in it, because the house is not yours, but remains council property. U only rent a room in there.

If u don’t like it, then u shall have lots of incentives to work and earn enough to get out and find your own place.

it would also get rid of that situation of an old person all alone in a big house, because everyone has left or died. she has to pay a huge rent for that large house, which she dont need. the one big concern everyone voice and give as an excuse not to move that person is that she will be moving away from neighbours etc, but it depands on how you present it to that old person.

many of their old friends have died anyway and the neighbourhood is not like before. if u present it to that old person the positive side of the move, more money to spend, cheap flat, smaller and cheaper to heat, etc etc. it wont be a bad move, but a really good one.

we all know of being attached to the status quo, and then when forced to change we find we like the new arrangements even better than the old ones.

As it is the only way now for old people to leave their houses is to go to an old folks home after they have been worn out by the cold large house they live in, and no money for everything because most of it goes to rent. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

why poverty?

London

The bbc is running a series of programs asking the question why poverty?

I gather they are saying that the system is hijacked by the rich for the rich to keep everyone else poor.

I don’t think the rich is at fault. They are just taking advantage of the capitalist system. As any human being will do,, when it finds a loophole in the system which s/he can exploit.

This polarisation of wealth to concentrate on the top 1% is both the strength and the weakness of the capitalist system.

That is why I personally feel periodic crashes of the system in the form of stock market crashes are good. It is a way for the wealth to be redistributed.

It is a bit like what happens in nature. U know of forests full of tall trees that have dominated that forest for ages, and killing off everything under it, or preventing everything from growing under its shadow. Than a big storm comes and uproots practically all of them, and u see giants crashing to the ground and enormous upheaval, or a volcano erupts and destroys everything. Then u see a great flourishing and new growth.

 

It seems to me that is the modus operandi of the capitalist system. Crashes are periodic adjustments of the system. It is also a way to create slaves, economic slaves to keep society going. So unless we all want to go back to a slave economy, the capitalist economy is the best alternative.

It allows us to create new businesses and makes those of us who are so inclined to trade and make money, and exercise our urge to invent and seek new thrills.

 

It was argued by the greek philosophers that poverty is essential , otherwise no one will work.

In a way, the greeks and the romans have solved the poverty question. If u are a citizen of rome u are allright as the state will provide for you. And it is all supported by money and slaves which are provided by conquering other countries.

Nowadays we don’t have slaves as such, but we do have wage slaves. And they are the modern slaves.

That is why I don’t think poverty will ever be eradicated.

Someone wrote in the letters section saying it is ignorance , more than poverty , that should be eradicated. If u eradicate ignorance, u will eradicate poverty.

And I agree. added. but only for the individual. general poverty will remain. 

Once u realised how the society and economy works, removing the ignorance there, u can take advantage of it and thrive.

Take me for eg.

I realised that it is folly to be tempted by the advertisers telling you what u should have to be successful. All the trappings of success involve buying things that costs a lot and that means getting into debt to pay them off, and that means having to work till u drop dead. That vicious circle is where the system keep people in wage slavery. And produce this rich getting richer and poor getting poorer scenario.

But once u know that, u can stop craving those goods and services. You will not have any debts, when u have enough for your needs you can stop buying more. Immediately u don’t need so much money to live, and u can therefore forget about working. U just need a small amount of money to live from then on.

But if you catch yourself saying , ‘that is not going to work‘… u are already putting up objections. U have been so brainwashed you cannot conceive of any alternative to working till u drop dead.

And to tell the truth, if everyone do what I am doing, society will collapse. Who would want to work if everyone is rich or do what I am doing? So who will farm the fields, butcher the meat, make stuff to sell ? Invent things , improve society by creating new products and services? Who will cut our hair, cook in our restaurants, serve our food? Who will build our roads, run our railways and airlines…

For that matter, who will be consuming those things, if all follow me and not consume.

We will have to bring in slavery.

So it is a paradox what I am advocating… if it is taken up by everybody, society will collapse. Haha.

So just as well no one will follow it.

I know there are a few of us doing it, but we keep it to ourselves. We are not the rich, because they too are caught up in the constant consuming and buying more and more expensive stuff and services. You would be surprised how many of these so called rich are in debt. In fact, the capitalist tax system makes it profitable to be in debt as it is a tax right off.

Did you know that Michael Winner prefers to borrow money at one time, because with interest rates so low, it is cheaper for him to fund his lifestyle that way, rather than sell his assets which are appreciating faster than money is depreciating.

He is one of the many rich who are playing the system. He is paying low interest using money that is going down in value fast. So with inflation his debt is reducing , he is paying it with money that is getting smaller in value, whilst his assets are increasing in value fast as they get rarer. Whilst still enjoying all the luxury services.

It is fun for a while, but after some time, u get bored with another gourmet restaurant meal, and how many times can u ride in your rolls Royce before it becomes mundane? And u are not even getting the pleasure of driving that thing, your chauffeur is.

People like me are playing the system but in another way. We are the ones who know and have sidestepped the system and taken ourselves out of that constant cycle of spending and consuming and debt . It is another way of playing the system so that it serves you.

And we get our pleasure from sex. Which for a gay guy at least do not need wealth to enjoy. Haha. There are plenty of other gay guys happy to play for fun, rather than money. And sex is the only thing that I know of that we can never get bored with.

There are more Michael winners than there are me. Haha. But both are playing the system to our advantage.