like to preface this post is a rant.

the last week Ive been thinking a lot about my work, and my place in the world. How things are for the working man now, and how they could be.

I do landscaping. I stared at it a year and a half ago, I'd done many years of ground works so it was a natural progression. It started off very slow, but this summer has been very busy, and I took on one main guy and one labourer. The main guy is a bit older than me and has worked in london maybe 25 years, and on th ebreaks I like to talk about 'the old days'. he did mostly concrete , shuttering, striking all that rough stuff. underpinning, diggin trenches. worked with the iirish firms. hard men.

i came here 4 years ago and worked as a concrete cutter and driller. used brokks , put in lintels, air breakers that kind of work. We talk a lot about sites, he's been on the gherkin, the shard, i worked on some of the hotel refurbishments in the city, the Savoy and that.

we bitch a lot i suppose. how things were, how in a very short space of time things have changed. we used to slate the eastern euros or the squarejaws as he calls them.

it seems to me the lot of the working man is getting steadily worse, but as well as that, there is not much hope.

I talked to my auld fella this weekend, he was a painter years ago. union this union that , going rates, strikes..

I go into a lot of well off houses, so do all the blokes here, I dont think these people are better than us, its more that we , the working class, have gotten a lot worse off.

Its not abput hard work its not. i break my bollix , and so does my missus, and we just about make the bills. one of my clients i did some handyman work for over the christmas, feck i dont know what he does, he moves numbers around a screen i think, and rents out 3 apartments in muswell hill. a life of ease. parties and dolphin bathrooms.

but its always been like that. tradesmans entrance, doff the cap, yes sir. but we did have unions, and something to fight for . and there was some kind of organisation.

we are like cattle. x factor, the premiership , sky news.

I dunno . I'd like to fight against something but i dont known what it is. it seems like its every working man for himself, on his own. was it always like that? We had a baby this year. the mrs has been buying stuff off ebay. a few evenings ago i went to collect a highchair she had bought, and i eneded up in an estate of houses off the edgeware road. really narrow roads, terraced houses, every driveway had a van or a lorry, airconditioing, electrician, builder, extensions expert, insulation... so this is where you guys all live. packed on top of each other. saving for a better life.

it has always been the old boys network where the working class have had to fight there corner
what we regard as a living wage will often be what the "privilaged classes " give there kids as an allowance to live on
now of course not all people with "great salaries " are greedy of course they are not but in general the better off people are the less tax they pay as a proportion off there income because they have good accountants or move to tax havens

my argument for people making good in life please pay your taxes for at least 2 years in the country that made you famous before going to a tax havens like monaco switzerland st lucia
we made you famous please take the time to pay us back

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we are all ------------------still learning

I see it as every man for himself in "working class" whatever you deem that to be, you need to really put in some graft and be clever about your business to stay solvent these days. Especially with the tory bastards back in power taking from the pocket of the working man so they and their toff golf buddies can afford a new jags every year and spit £1000 bottles of wine into buckets, without those big corrupt wage packets their sexually repressed wives might leave them. As a guy who studys economics I can tell you most of what their "economists" are telling you is incredibly skewed and warped and most of their policies aim to benefit higher earners, the majority of the economic loses out and in the long run unemployment rises. Should be bloody illegal.
Not to mention they're making it extremely difficult for people to get a good education should they chose, indirectly cutting apprenticeships, it's getting harder and harder for the working classes to get where they want to be.

I'll help out my fellow man where I can, I used to do a lot of voluntary work for amnesty international when I had more free time. And I'll always try and put work the way of people I know whether they're tradesman, driving instructors or just opening a new business.
Rich families have it easier no doubt, thats the corrupt system for you. It eased up for a while then got worse, people got lazy and no one wants to fight for some reason any more, petrol prices being a good example of such laziness.

In the end I simply try and do the best I can with what I've got, I've always been taught to work hard and do what I can to overcome the obstacles in the way of where I want to be. That to me is the fight, while I'd love to change the world it's just daft to think you can change people without being an evil b*stard.
In my ideal political system? Everyone would be born with the same oppurtunity and then how well off they are is proportionate to how hard they work. A nice balance of socialism and capitalism. Things like private schools would be banned, the best education going to the most deserving.
I'm rambling, I'm sorry if that makes little sense in places I've edited wordings but I'm so bloody hung over today after a mates birthday last night.

i'm glad this is not in the grumpy dept, cos i have nothing to grump about on this one, i'm a working man and happy to be that, i've done ok, I own my own semi, run my little business from my home and got everything I NEED, notice i said need and not want, Sure there's more to be had, but that can be said for rich folks too, My generation have enjoyed probably the best years that a working man can have, My dad and his generation went through world war 2, my sons and his generation will have to get through this depression, overcrowding , traffic congestion, lower wages and higher prices,
The rich folks have more money, but they have bigger bills to pay too, and money won' make you happy,
If your healthy, able bodied and got friends, you're a rich man,

here, shake hands with a millionaire

Excellent way of looking at life, Tom, and oh! so true.

Made much better reading than any of the corrupt Sunday rags.

Thanks Tom, my pint this afternoon will taste much better for your philosophy.

dave

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You can always tell a Yorkshireman,
But you cannot tell him much.

It's pointless trying to make this a PARTY political issue as all the major parties are indistinguishable from each other in the policies they promote - essentially they are all out for their own welfare a fcuk the working man.
Keep any eye on the 'parasite' classes though - you can see their greed everywhere you look from local authority big-wigs to 'directors' of public organisations and the usual hangers-on such as QUANGO workers.
You can forsee the coming collapse as we're into the stage of 'every man for himself' and when your so-called leaders can't see that their policies (like the EU, wind turbines, benefits etc) are sending this country into an irreversible decline and they COULDN'T GIVE A FCUK then it's time to stock up on supplies, batten down the hatches and grease up the shot gun.
The public can see, quite clearly, the folly of the governments actions but so long as the public continue to soak up the BBC and MSM propaganda unquestioningly, living their lives through the X-factor and other 'reality' programs then, quite frankly, the public are going to get exactly what they deserve.

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This post may contain nuts

the problems started with the tories selling council houses gas electric and several other family assets
at the same time they cut the taxes that put 5% in the bottom peoples pay packets but 30% to 50 % in the high earners pocket

now selling public assets at a reduced price has a feel good factor great for elections also frees up assets for tax reductions it also removes the cost off investment from the government to the consumer who have the additional costs off the dividends to the shareholders who finance the investment
then off course after a couple off years the down side rears its ugly head house prices go up the rental stock reduces putting up rental costs
now the feel good factor is still there because off lack off proper banking control allowing the greedy to control the purse string without the use off proper common sense the excessive lending causes house prices to rise allowing people to free up equity to buy things thus fueling the economy it off course was further fueled by tory blair and by the time gordon brown got in the blue touch paper had already been lit

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I was made redundant at 56 because of Margaret Thatcher.

Best thing that ever happened to me! Started my own business, worked me bollix off and made my fortune. Retired now, last week I opened a bottle of 1997 Richbourg from the two cases I have in my cellar. I don't want two jags though.

Downside is I'm completely knackered. I have to spend 5 hours a day 3 days a week in hospital, no holidays, being dialysed. My life expectation is worse than if I'd been diagnosed with colon cancer.

Seems there's a price to pay if you have it too good.

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I should be dead; I've cheated the Grim Reaper yet again by surviving my third heart attack in June.

The rich don't have it all their own way. A builder I know used to have a fund with £ 10 million in it from his dad. He used to manage the family business and has always been good to his subbies. When the credit crunch hit, his money was tied up in construction projects and still is. He now has to work like the rest of us, and he hasn't complained to anyone I know. He is still always first to the bar when we go to the pub and he is working as hard as ever.

The main reasons that British Working people have it harder than they used to is because we are less competitive as a nation than we used to be, because we have a growing population which means we each need to compete with each other just to retain a smaller share of national resources and because we have borrowed heavily against our future earnings, the same as the rest of the developed world.

If we focused on Deportation instead of importation of both goods and people, and pay down the debt for a few years, we would be OK. The tories talk a good game about debt reduction, but the man in the street needs to be able to afford a house and there is too much competition for them

We're hardly "less competitive". When you have the rug snatched from under your feet there's little you can do about it - and I'm talking unrestricted immigration bringing wages down, red tape and government energy policies making investment and growth nigh-on impossible and the 'get-rich-quick' brigade (supposed clever bankers) ruining every possibility. And that's BEFORE I get to the politicians......

Anyone that has managed to make themselves a successful business deserves applause. There would be a lot more if only we were 'free' to do what is required.

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This post may contain nuts

If it wasn't for cheap foreign Builders, we would all be loaded, or the property boom would never have happened. I would be content with either of the above

when comparing like for like the only reason we are uncompetitive is because companies want to ring the last ounce off productivity out off the workers regardless off consequences rather than invest in people and up to date equipment to gain efficiency and loyalty

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Each man that goes to work is 'working class' and we all have to look after ourselves, whether we have money or no money.

Luck plays a part for a lot of people as to what they end up with or in some cases bad luck means they have less.You can work your nuts off but you still need a little luck to get the rewards for that effort.

At the end of the day I have been on both sides of the coin, on more than one occasion.

Where as the last time it was lovely to be earning tax free as non UK registered and a lot of money, have the lovely detached house next to our field, next to the beach next to the tidal river, all on a private estate, with the 2 motorbikes, 2 powerful Jaguars, Jensen, nice car for the ex wife Diving in the Maldives twice a year, no worries if I wanted to go and splash out 25 or 20K on something on my debit card........EX WIFE gives a big clue.........I wasn't happy.

I have been back on the shite side for 4 years. Gave my ex wife everything, just to get away. Met my now wife and live with her in her shite council place surrounded by Africans that spit, pi55, throw dirty nappys and affro hair all over the place, drive an older jag as a newer one gets vandalised, drive a 6 year old van because my brand new one lasted 1 week before being vandalised. No longer have a motorbike because that was nicked during the first week that I bought it here ( I know who by and that was 2 years ago.....soflty softly catchey monkey!) It is lovely being back on the side of being dumped on. My wife has multiple immune diseases including Lupus, which will kill her in the end. She was a nurse and paid in to the system all her life but unlike all the Africans and freeloaders on the estate is told to feck off by DLA. So although I earn over 1K a week for the sub contract work I do, this has to support both of us and therefore we struggle........Funny thing though, is that as soon as I am inside my front door with the wife I am Happy.

Doesn't matter what you have or don't have, happiness is what matters most because without that happiness everything else is shite.

The immediate core around me is what matters and everyone else is insignificant and as far as I am concerned they can look after themeselves.

Having said that.....if I was asked to risk my life abroad for another 3 year stint to get away from the scum, here, I would lol.

as i have said before its obviously an area thing
i don't recognize the misery you are going through we don't get people disrespect there surrounds or community to the extent you describe we rub along nicely with all nations or groups with little or no friction
indeed i only lock my back door when i go on holiday and often leave my front door ajar

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What you mean you haven't got all the drug dealers housed opposite you. We even had a woman housed in our little area next to all the families with kids, she had just been released from prison for kidnap and torture of.............a child!!! Mind you this is Barking lol and the Thames View estate at that. Don't get me wrong a lot of the white families are a waste of space.

Human rights has killed many council estates and bought the living standards down. I had the rozzers out last year cos the africans a few doors down were having another party. All the men and some of the women were walking out of the house pi55ing and sh7ting on the green and walking back into the party. Rozzers did naff all because it was blacks. I complained and was told that it could be seen as racist to interfere. They did however interfere when I threatened a little action of my own!