and smoking is legal, governments want people on computers and mobile phones in order to contact them. Don't believe all you see on TV they have an agenda and causing jealousy makes people talk about it and increases their viewing figures. Controversy pays.
With respect, since I don't know anyone's true situation, from my view I'd say it is impossible to rent or buy a property and then live on €3000 per year. So if you don't have to pay a penny in rent or you own outright a property then that is great for you but to the majority it would be impossible. Yes we are all part of a system and complaining about those on benefits is driven by emotion. However as pointed out, the poor and those on benefits pay their taxes too, on booze, cigarettes, housing, betting, fuel, in services, to tradesmen (who collect taxes after all), on goods they buy. Most benefits by far are paid to the elderly (perhaps rightly so), some are paid to those who don't need the money. Also remember anyone accessing health services, even if for free, is providing employment. Those claiming benefits are providing employment, although the governments want to get rid of employees in favour of computerisation. That just shifts employment to the electronic companies who are global giants. What is needed is a new system of economics otherwise we just continue on the Up then Down cycle, the same old story ... companies upsize, regionalise, nationalise, or downsize, fragment etc. Governments change, progressively to the right wing. Individuals have to cope.
Always makes me smile when I see the phrase 'flat screen telly' ! I don't think we've been able to buy any other kind for quite some time....
Whoops I meant Tales of the Unexpected"!
Edgar Lustgarden moment
Spooky.
I had a very spooky experience outside Lidl near us. There was a female (lady?) SDF sitting down with her dog and a begging dish. I had only seen her from a distance but when i was leaving I decided to give her something and drew alongside in my cawr so I saw her rather better. She looked incredibly like my late wife who had died a few years earlier. I was really pretty shocked and still remember it very clearly as it happened several years ago now, Glad i stopped, but what was that? Very bizarre.
not forgetting les clopes too...
I saw an SDF outside the Intermarché in Cahors a couple of days back. I bought some dog food for his two dogs.We got talking and he gave me the same old guff about finding it difficult to find work and that the government aren't interested in the poor etc etc etc I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for the guy when he stubbed out his B & H and pulled out his Android from his pocket to answer a call !!!
I give in !
and scratch cards, David, it's just a big money-go-round: the state dolls it out then reaps it back in ;-)
I agree with Simon, ...and €987 sounds not too bad at all ! Of course if you smoke, need an iphone, a new car and a flat screen telly you may need more - it never ceases to amaze me when I watch programmes on tv about poverty stricken people that they have all the above!
I think that Simon Roxburgh must be a disciple of Ian Duncan-Smith! I've been struggling since the 1980's and after a divorce, the death of my second wife and bringing up three children I just can't see how you can exist on the sum claimed. OK it may be easier in the wilds in France than in the UK. In London now a young couple need at least £100k a year to stand any chance of living and working there. Conversely in my wife country people are existing, and seeming to enjoy what is probably going to be a fairly short life, on about 4 euros a working day. I guess you have to take your pick. I'm just rather glad I was part of the "rat race" for a while as it enabled me to do lots of things, and enrich my life in a non monetary way, that I would not have been able to do if I was just living in the woods with someone like Swampy, as a relative of mine did, smoking quite a bit of weed. Oh and BTW why is it that those on benefits seem to spend so much of it on cigarettes and booze?
Plenty are suffering around me, but it's more those who work who are suffering to pay those who don't. So many are better off on benefits than struggling on the smic - it's often said and I see it on a day to day basis, my tabac is in the town centre with a large parc of hlm just opposite so I know what I'm talking about here!
My Foncières plus house, car, health insurances plus the water rates and dustbins are already that without even thinking about EDF & petrol, Orange et al.
'Living off the grid' means no electricity etc doesn't it ? What runs the computer for example ? I assume you don't have a car ?
correct, try living off the grid and you will see how simple live is
per person
Is this per person, per couple or per family/household?
Our local taxes are more than that!
You mean you can feed yourself, pay your taxes/impôts etc and pay the usual bills on just €3000 per year ? You must live quite a frugal existence ? You must be self-sufficient in food for example ?
per year
What '€3K' per month or annum ?
Serious question Simon.