When I were a lad......
...we were told by Raymond Baxter, James Burke, Philippa Forester and other Denizens of Tomorrow's World on the good old black-and-white steam telly that by the time we got towards middle/old age we could expect to be working far less - increased leisure time would become the norm and there's be tons of choices of activities which we might adopt to fill all these extra hours ...
...fifty years later... it hasn't happened. I'm well past 60 and my old-age pension and bus-pass has slipped away from what I'd expected by well over a year - although we have increased sex equality - instead of lowering the men's retirement age from 65 in line with the former women's age of 60, suddenly we're all told that many folk don't want to retire - they love their work so much that they've claimed the right to work on till they drop and the retirement age for both sexes is currently 66 and rising [target currently 70 I think].
Those of us who're working at just over minimum wage looking forward to the pension they've been contributing National Insurance etc all these years, earning just enough to get by [or not! Living Wage...Ha-ha!] until we start to draw our pensions and moving to the leisure we were promised by Raymond, James et al.
...All this at the same time as many young folk are out of work, or if they're lucky, being forced into jobs they are blatantly over-qualified for because the posts they need are blocked by old people whose knowledge and skills are probably way out-of-date and hence,and making those least qualified people virtually unemployable and liable to lose their benefits because they've been out of a job for too long if not forever...
In the age of the Compensation Culture and Legal Actions which lead to Mau-Mau warriors being paid out for past misdemeanours of former UK government and military officials and officers in Kenya, do you think us old farts who don't work for the love of it have a case against the BBC and probably the government for breach of promises resulting in increased working years and loss of leisure time [and facilities] and condemning us to a much shorter retirement due to increased years 'at the coalface'?
...And what about all those robots who were going to lighten the load for us, one and all? More hogwash - if anything we have become slaves to the robots - telephones and computers which are not only constantly demanding more and more of our time attention, work and unpaid hours when we're 'off duty' but available....
It seems that there's more work than ever to be done - yet sadly instead of it being rationed out evenly between everyone - efficiency demands it be concentrated on the unlucky few in the lowest positions of the pay and respect spectra and conveniently thinned out as the pay-scales rise [and here I know many of you will disagree] leaving only the workaholic types in these higher echelons claiming as many hours as they need to feed their addictions. And worse,leaving many poorly qualified people who in the past could at least have been a crossing sweeper or a tea-boy/girl to languish on the dole or even worst - to struggle to retain minimal benefits to allow at least a basic lifestyle and very little quality of life....
We often hear that Capitalism is the only system that allows certain basic freedoms to exist universally. Given that the majority of the population seem to be happy being spied on by CCTV, I ask the thoughtful question: What Certain Basic Freedoms? They seem to be disappearing year-by-year if not quicker....
Well I think that's enough of a rant for one day - I'll leave you alone now but I'll be happy to read your reactions if you have any - especially if you disagree with me and can see some light at the end of your tunnel... Best of Luck!
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