Statistics about Welfare Budget in the UK

 

This is  was just going to be a linky post to Oliver James’ blog regarding the welfare budget of the UK, but then I got ranty. For my part, I’m un-involved in this fight. I am just an average, working 31 year-old male. However, I worry for the future. I worry that if the Tories continue on the path they are on, then there won’t be a safety net left for future generations should they fall on hard times. I worry about all the sick and disabled people and their families who need to cover the cost of living as well as cover the cost of medication and card. I worry about what the UK is going to look like a few decades from now: With “BIG BUSINESS” being in charge of nearly everything and costs shooting up to prop up their bottom lines; With the wealthy becoming wealthier and the poorer being left to rot and being marked as pariahs if they try to raise awareness of how badly they are being treated.

From my perspective, we are repeatedly told how there “isn’t enough money”; how we have to cut services and cut budgets to de-crease the deficit and “balance the budget”. However, after reading what I read in the media, in Private Eye and on-line, I’m convinced the money IS there. It’s just in the bank accounts of the wealthy who, having been accustomed to being wealthy, to not having to worry about money and paying the bills, don’t even consider the idea of giving it up.

The money IS there in the bank accounts of the corrupt, who give contracts and business to their friends in government and to their friends in business. People say that’s just how the world works, it’s “who you know” but that shouldn’t be a defence! That’s not how the world should work. Counsellors, politicians, businessmen, MPs, they should not all be in each-other’s pockets, rewarding each other for another contract gained here; another school/hospital sold off there with £1,000s changing hands each time. Yes I may be wishing for a utpoia but isn’t that what we should be reaching for? Yes I’m an idealist but there’s NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!

The money IS there. It hasn’t VANISHED. I’ll cite an example:  In the latest Private Eye magazine, it is reported that the Chief Executive of GlaxoSmithKline, Sir Andrew Witty, has a £7.2m pay packet this year. An almost 75% increase on his pay-packet last year. (SOURCE: Private Eye magazine issue 1361 p5.)

If you honestly sit down and think about that, who NEEDS a £7.2m annual pay packet? When, as I am proving, you can survive on under £20k a year. Witty could give £1m back to the government and still have a £6.2m pay-packet and make some people’s lives better. Surely even a £1m pay-packet would be enough for him to live on, with the rest shared back with the populace? Would that work? Would that be a good idea? Who knows. Could it hurt? I don’t know. I know there are probably smarter people than I in the world who have considered this idea.

As I stated at the start of this rant, I have no particular horse in this race, nor do I have a particular ideology that I’m trying to push. I do feel however, that in this time of forced austerity for some, those who are getting obscenely wealthy (and please don’t try to argue that £7.2m a year isn’t obscene) are under a MORAL obligation to share the wealth with those who have less; to step down from being obscenely wealthy to moderately wealthy, or even all the way down to slightly-wealthy, for the better-ment of society.

Well, that went on a lot longer than I originally intended, I think this has been brewing in my head for a while and now it is out there on the interwebs. For no-one to read (I anticipate).

The article that spawned this blog, was by Oliver James UK and was a list of facts and statistics regarding the Welfare budget of the UK and some of the mis-apprehensions that people are under thanks to the “Mejia” and is found here: http://oliverjamesopinion.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/10-facts-about-benefits-britain/.

If you’ve read this far, I thank you and I recommend you listen to the Proopcast by Greg Proops as he says points similar to this in a more amusing fashion than I ever could. It can be found here: http://www.gregproops.com/blog/.