Sponsored Links
S
subman101
You're judging by your own standards
J
joinerjohn
Not just property prices Joe. Almost everything we buy is vastly overpriced. Gas and electricity prices ought to be lowered. Ok, less profit for the power generation companies (but they're all owned by foreign companies anyway)
Fuel prices at the pumps need reducing too. The government could help by reducing tax on fuel (but they won't)
Sponsored Links
50% of what we earn goes back to the government in some form of tax.
Were the highest taxed nation in the world and still the borrowing continues.
labour are blaming the possibility of a double dip on government cuts when in fact its likely the tax rises under the tories that has done more harm.
Were the highest taxed nation in the world and still the borrowing continues.
labour are blaming the possibility of a double dip on government cuts when in fact its likely the tax rises under the tories that has done more harm.
J
joinerjohn
Do you want the Labour lot back in charge then Norcon? Borrowing would escalate out of control and we'll find ourselves in the same boat as the Greeks (except we can't drop out of the Euro can we?)
S
subman101
By your own admission of tax evasion and fraud, it isn't 50% of what you earn though, is it?
As for the wages you give your cheap slave labourers, some of that will no doubt be sent back to their homeland; so congratulations on that little drain too
- Joined
- 28 Oct 2005
- Messages
- 31,281
- Reaction score
- 1,997
- Country
S
subman101
Download and have a little play around from Gapminder. You can see all sorts of wonderful trends here and trace individual countries too, if you like
Is there any evidence that it is under control.
I understand your perplexity.
I've had an odd sort of life - interesting, I think, but odd - and it's probably been very different to yours, and those of most other members on this forum. I'm not going to write my biography, but it would probably help clarify matters if I gave you a bit more detail on my working history, and the events that led up to my current situation.
Firstly, something on the nature of archaeological work.
Archaeological excavation is always an option of last resort, because it destroys what it values in the process of evaluating it. Most excavation in the UK is "rescue" work - when a site is going to be destroyed by development, the archaeologists move in to salvage what they can before it disappears forever.
Consequently, archaeological work is sporadic, short-term, and unpredictable. It's also extremely labour intensive, and Archaeological Units rely on having a pool of unemployed "diggers" they can call on, as-and-when. As a result my archaeological "career" was unavoidably punctuated by periods of unemployment, some longer than others.
I wasn't aware of this when I started in archaeology, but I got used to it. I didn't really start thinking about long-term prospects until about 20 years ago, when I made a bad decision that was going to affect the rest of my life. I won't go into details, but it took me down a dead end, career-wise, and I've been struggling to find a way out ever since.
Jumping forward to 2001, injuring my elbow was a bit of a blow, and a pivotal moment (no pun intended). I was at a loss at what to do next. I'd been fairly confident of getting a couple of years' full-time work with MoLAS (Museum of London Archaeology Service), but that was out of the window. I'd tried working in other fields, with mixed success, but archaeology had always been my fall-back option. Archaeology teaches you a lot, but it doesn't leave you with much in the way of transferable skills - there's not much call for people who know how to dig holes in the ground very slowly... except in archaeology.
Early in 2002, I was given the opportunity to move to Ipswich, and I seized the chance. I was desparate to get out of London, a place I hate, and I had the feeling that moving somewhere smaller and "slower" would help me find the sort of niche work I was looking for. This actually proved to be the case.
In 2003, the Job Centre sent me on New Deal for the first time. This led to a work placement at the Estates Dept of the local NHS Trust. They had a massive backlog of archive material that needed transposing to AutoCAD files, and they needed someone they could quickly train up to start work on the job.
It quickly became apparent that I was the ideal match. I understand floorplans, and I'd had previous CAD experience (albeit with a different system). I got on well with the Head of the Dept., "R", and he wanted to find a way to keep me on without taking me on as permanent staff (no budget for that), so he came up with a proposal: If I was prepared to work for him on a self-employed basis, he would not only guarantee me a couple of years' work sorting their archives, but would also use his extensive list of contacts to find me external work, for which he'd take a commission on behalf of the Dept. The plan was that, by the time I'd cleared the backlog, I'd have built up a large enough portfolio of clients to start working as a freelance CAD draftsman. The Department would get a new income stream, and I'd get a shiny new career.
Obviously, I thought this was the lucky break I needed. The Job Centre OK'd the business plan, and I became self-employed in April 2004.
Unfortunately, six months after I started, R went off sick, and never came back. A year later, he tendered his resignation, and I gather he's now running a market garden somewhere in Suffolk. I never heard from him again.
His successor as Head was a perfectly nice chap, but he knew nothing of R's plans, and had no intention of continuing with them. He was happy for me to complete the work I'd been given, and would have been happy to continue the arrangement beyond that, but he couldn't guarantee me enough work from the Dept alone to make a business viable. Once I'd cleared the backlog, I calculated that it would actually cost me money to stay in business, so I ceased trading and signed on again in July '06.
I thought, with that experience under my belt, that I'd be able to find agency work, but it was not to be. For two years I touted myself round all the agencies I could find, I did an evening class for an NVQ in AutoCAD, to fill in gaps and get a qualification, all to no avail. There is CAD work out there, but it all seems to be for people with a much more specialised background than mine. There is freelance worh out there, but one thing R emphasised is that marketing in that area is very much by word of mouth, and he seems to be right. Without his address book, I'm screwed.
Then the recession hit, and things went completely down the pan. That's why I am where I am now. Are there things I could or should have done that I didn't? Probably. Are my expectations unrealistic? Possibly, but no more unrealistic than the expectation that bullying and coercing the "benefit scrounger" into staring at a newspaper all day is somehow going to magic him into job that either doesn't exist, or is beyond his reach.
S
subman101
I can't help but ponder over the inability of some posters on here to empathise with those who, through no real fault of their own, are stuck between a rock and a hard place. It shows a lack of imagination.
One cannot but wonder about how quickly their attitudes would change if they found themselves in your position, Geometer. Your longstanding profession involved measuring the world's past, theirs involves measuring their navel.
One cannot but wonder about how quickly their attitudes would change if they found themselves in your position, Geometer. Your longstanding profession involved measuring the world's past, theirs involves measuring their navel.
J
joinerjohn
Well said subman. Surely those on here (who call unemployed people , spongers etc) could at least try to imagine what would happen, should they find themselves, unemployed in the present economic climate.
Spot on, they can't see further than their own nose and what goes around comes around
Sponsored Links
Similar threads
- vinty
- General Discussion
