the central government giving a generation of young people a logical reason to operate unbanked is about the most shoot-yourself-in-the-foot move i've heard this year. like even saying it's a possibility down the road is wildly stupid.
it's like step 0 in "how to grow the informal economy astronomically"
I'm sure they want to. every country wants to get a taste in taxes, but it is unrecorded, invisible, and generally impenetrable by virtue of it's function.
people spend 5 years attempting to estimate the informal economic activity of a single sector in a single community and it's just a number on a page. it's like "estimating" how many people in Canada had how many embarrassing, secret dreams about unicorns last year.
"Welcome. Welcome to Slough. You have chosen, or been chosen, to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers. I thought so much of Slough that I elected to establish my Administration here, in the Citadel so thoughtfully provided by Our Benefactors. I have been proud to call Slough my home. And so, whether you are here to stay, or passing through on your way to parts unknown, welcome to Slough. It's safer here."
It's a funny cycle. Neolibs do things that hurt young people, so young people don't vote for them, so neolibs do things to hurt young people, and the cycle continues forever
Something happened in the Anglosphere that made baby boomers somehow despise their successors. Moreso than the usual grumbling, but not particularly antagonistic contradictions between young and old throughout history.
I know in Italy there’s a bit more cohesion between young and old, and in Japan there’s a celebration when young people come of age and start taking on responsibilities. Both are imperialist, capitalist nations but at least are semi-normal about that.
It started with millennials being the media’s favorite whipping boys, and then it just doubled down with gen Z as the respective governments practically conspired to make everyone’s 20s be as horrible and boring as humanly possible.
Grew up being beaten into little work machines by a generation of fucked up ww2 vets, and now that newer generations are allowed to be people they're making their (justified, but not our fault) jealousy everyone else's problem
I hate to be a crude materialist about this, but it's really the lead poisoning......that stuff was everywhere, an entire generation mass poisoned by one of the most insidious neurotoxins known to humankind, and the older they get, the more the literal brain damage manifests itself in more destructive and antisocial ways
I knew about lead poisoning growing up, but a few years ago after looking into the new research on lead exposure, I think the scale and true scope of the catastrophe has never been fully accounted for, imagine a scenario where hundreds of millions of people unknowingly imbibed a substance that would render them into borderline sociopaths with poor impulse control? Well that shit happened and it went on for decades
I just posted something similar. It's not a meme, there have been studies that show most of them had it. It also made them really succeptible to media programming.
As time goes on, I think the capitalist machine just requires more and more sections of the population to "other", to blame for the failing state of the world. Divert attention away to anyone but the richoids.
I honestly feel there is something unique about western boomers, and not in a good way. It may actually be lead poisoning and propaganda. They seem more gullible than even normal elderly people. A lot of them also seem to genuinely not give a shit about their children as well. I don't notice this with other generations, before or after.
In fairness we have townhall meetings of entire halls of people laughing at the conservative candidates. There is real contempt there. And these are halls filled with 40+ people not youth that hate them even more.
The bank accounts that never have savings because young British adults are paid poverty wages as the norm, and the drivers licenses for cars they can't afford to buy and maintain?
Conscription in UK ended in 1963 and UK cannot maintain even their current small army and are having reductions from time to time. I think it's more of an unpaid labor draft.
oh ok, so this is some optional thing some kids could do, but also can choose not to. and this mf is saying if they don't do it they can't have a bank account? service guarantees citizenship
Cutting off things that are required to live under capitalism for refusing to join the country's warcrime army? Why isn't the media calling this authoritarian?
Just throw kids in jail if they refuse to cooperate with being press-ganged into being your soldiers. Every other shitty conscription scheme does that. Why the bizarre invention of new punishments?
for anyone missing context: the UK had a "national service" program in the early 60's, where all 18 year olds had to choose between military service and local community service (with most choosing the latter)
the conservative party's plan is to bring this program back for all genders, and this is how they're considering enforcing it
most british oldheads support it, but young people are understandably pretty pissed, seeing it's unpaid labor that takes time and energy from work/school they need to survive in a failing economy. (community service will require one weekend per month for a full year)
Labour figures also privately accused the Tories of making 18-year-olds fix the problems the government had created, by boosting numbers in the military, helping the NHS and repairing infrastructure.
Oh, this will be really bad when Rishi Sunak is in a position to legislate after the next election. I sure hope the Tories don't use the significant leverage they will have to push for this.