Being a 44% man

Jul 20, 2016
4 min read

"Thanks for applying for the role at [Employer].

The role is an entry level junior role, so I feel you are very over-qualified for the role.

Best of luck in your job search!"

That was the reply I got from one of the hundreds of job applications I have sent off over the past year. Although I understand that the role was below my ability range, it was well within my interest area being based on writing and social media. But evidently they want someone...who is...LESS qualified. They just assume I will do it short time and then bugger off.

People ask me what kind of job I want and although I wish I could energetically tell them my passions, the answer really is now just simple: I want a job. I need a job. I am on benefits and hate it, and especially now I am on the Work Programme, having been out of work for over 12 months. The presumption is that I am not trying hard enough to find work. The presumptuous f**ker in the Job centre (yes, I have to sign on there as well as the Work Programme: two different people being paid to do the SAME job. Oh...the irony!) had the gall to make reference to the "entitlement culture" in the UK during my last meeting. I nearly knocked her puerile face into next week.

What am I supposed to feel entitled to, exactly? Apparently the Government wants to make going back to work more attractive than staying out of work. But I don't choose to be out of work. I don't even ask for much of a salary. And to be honest, although I hate doing it at all, I currently cost the tax payer less than the average MP's breakfast expenses over a year.

But now all is fine in our society because we have the National "Living Wage" - calculated at £7.20/h. I'm not sure who calculated that, but it did make me wonder what it really equated to. Well, here it is:

Average Working Days per month: 22

Average paid working hours a month: 176

"Living Wage" per month: £1267.20

What I live on per month: £560.89

Which equates to 44% of the living wage.

Now, I don't for one minute think that being on benefits should be allowed to prop someone up indefinitely...but if it has been calculated that £7.20 is the wage require to be able to have a basic life with needs met...why is it that my life is worth just 44% of that?

So, flying in the face of political correctness, I am comfortable in saying...I am sick of it. I am not part of the "entitlement generation". I work more hours in a week volunteering than most people do on their paid jobs. I give my time to charities, to campaigns. I help people fight for their defence in criminal cases; I give my time freely to campaign for justice; I stand for, and actively campaign for the protection of children; I counsel and advise suffering victims; I help people in countless ways so that they can live and enjoy their lives and freedom...

...but I am only worthy to be 44% of a man. I couldn't afford a social life even if I had one.

There are mindless, brain-dead, lazy, drugged up, alcoholic, feckless, useless wastes of space, who spend the little money given to them on drugs (but sadly very rarely condoms) and still they think society owes them the money - so much so that they call it "my money". I understand I have painted a negative stereotype, but as with all stereotypes, it is based on truth. I am not referring to those who are disabled or too ill to work (so don't even bother getting on that righteous high-horse), but I am referring to all those who simply ARE less deserving.

There. I said it. Less deserving. I said it like I don't think that everyone should be entitled equally to the same support. And that is because I don't. I do think it is unfair that someone as hard working, skilled, experienced and qualified as me; who has worked many years in their life and paid into the system; who contributes time, effort and passion to help others...is more deserving than a lazy moron who probably curses "allz demz immygrunts cummin steelin arr jobz, innit." I am worth more than barely a fraction of the kinds of expenses most of our MPs claim every year for their second home. I am also worth more than being one of over 35,000 people who live on that same figure for the same price as the annual Champagne budget for the House of Lords. Not to mention Chilcott spending seven years writing one report, costing £10m. Chilcot himself taking £790 a day, and other panellists taking £565 a day.

That means that ONE panellist, in apparently doing a job in service of the public, being paid for by he public, was enjoying a pay that equated to an entire month's money of an honest job seeker in just one day. You could employ me 22 times over on the same money. I don't begrudge the need for those who lost loved ones to have justice, but it is so wasteful of money.

Countless prisoners of no threat to society sit in prison, costing the taxpayer over £40,000 a year. And that would make me worth 17% of the average prisoner.

So I make no apology for being bitter and angry. Do I think I am entitled? Surely I am entitled to dignity, integrity...to a feeling of self worth.

Why is it too much to ask to feel worth more than just 44% of a man?