Work? Why bother?

Thursday-Friday blog

In the former Soviet Union, people used to joke: “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us”.

But in Britain for many people the situation has become: “There’s no point working as they still pay us”.

Many jobs are interesting, intellectually satisfying and fulfil important social and financial needs. But many are not – they’re repetitive, boring, unsatisfying and often badly paid.

Unemployment in Britain is officially around 5.2%. That’s about 1.78 million people. But I think we all know these figures are nonsense. Approximately 9.1 to 9.4 million working-age people (aged 16–64) in the UK are economically inactive—meaning they are not working and not looking for work. This group includes students, those with long-term sickness, and people with caring responsibilities, representing roughly 21-22% of the working-age population. Of these more than 9 million, 2.8 million people are inactive due to health conditions, a 40% rise since 2019 and a figure which increases by thousands every week.

So real unemployment is probably at least 4.58 million – over 13% – but most likely even higher than that.

When we work, we are engaging in a trade – we’re selling our time and (hopefully) skills for money. Usually this is in the expectation that this money will allow us to buy a property, maybe start a family and live a reasonably productive life. But, if there is no hope of most jobs providing such things, why would many people want to work?

Buying a home has become an unaffordable luxury for many millions however hard they work:

And those who can’t afford to buy are being crucified by rents rising mush faster than wages:

Meanwhile those at the top seem to be grabbing ever more of our wealth:

With some company bosses being paid extraordinary amounts:

Looking at this situation, many people may feel all the cards are stacked against them.

Then when you add in the fact that benefits can pay more than full-time work, millions would be making a rational choice to just decide that it’s not worth bothering to go out to work.

At least one million people are now out of work and claiming overlapping sickness and housing benefits alongside Personal Independence Payment (PIP), according to analysis by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), following a surge in claims for mental health conditions.

The think tank warns that the rising tide of welfare dependency is being felt most acutely among young people, with almost one million under 25s now out of work or training. Recent CSJ research revealed that by 2026 there will be more than a £2,500 gap between earnings and combined benefit income. A full time worker on the National Living Wage (NLW) is expected to earn £22,500 after paying income tax and national insurance. By comparison, an economically inactive claimant on Universal Credit (UC) for ill health with the average housing benefit and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) would receive an income of around £25,000, rising to £27,500 for those awarded PIP’s highest rate.

And that’s just a brief glance at why we’re becoming a “There’s no point working as they still pay us”. country.

This may be fun for a while. But it inevitably leads to national bankruptcy. Time to get in the popcorn and a few beers.