on a Better Way for Tony Abbott to Save Money
Our Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, wants to cut the national spending on the Disability Support Pension. And fair enough. We're expensive, us sick people. I have no idea how much money the government has spent so far on keeping me alive, but I reckon if I knew the actual figure, even I would find it offensive.
It's not just the sick people that are too expensive. He's cutting spending all across the welfare and housing sectors, and making it more expensive to get health care or tertiary education. The nation is in debt and in need. We all have to do our bit.
For example, as of next year, people under 30 will not be able to receive any unemployment benefits until they show they have been looking for a job for six months. So if you're in your 20's, and you're on a low wage, you probably don't have much in the way of savings. If you lose your job, or you get bullied and abused at work and can't cope with it, or you get sick and can't get to a doctor at the right time to get the appropriate medical certificate, suddenly you can't pay your rent. Then you're homeless, and once you don't have a home to put it all in, you lose all your stuff. And then you have nothing and it seems impossible to get back on your feet again. It may well be impossible without the support of friends, family or charity organisations.
I've been dependent on the Disability Support Pension since the age of 18 - my whole adult life. Tony's worried that this has been a waste of money, and that I should have been made to help myself by supporting myself. It's true that there have been some relatively brief periods in my life where my health was fairly good and I might have been able to support myself. But without reliable income support, I would have just lost everything every time I had another relapse. Looking back as objectively as I can, I really believe that without the pension, I wouldn't be alive by now. I wouldn't have made it. I can see if that if the welfare system were in the state it is in now when I was 18, I'd really most likely be dead by now.
And that's okay. I can appreciate the desire to create a fitter, leaner, stronger society the way we did in prehistoric times, by eliminating the weak. But it's obvious what's going to happen to here. We're going to end up with a whole lot of dispossessed and mentally ill people running around on the streets, committing crimes out of desparation and upsetting decent, tax-paying folks. It's going to get ugly. Fortunately, I have a better idea.
If Tony would just invest a few dollars in a few discreet, hygienic euthanasia centres in all the major cities, then all us useless, non-productive, overdemanding disadvantaged people could be taken care of quietly, neatly and painlessly. No mess, no fuss. No more crazy people, no more frail elderly, no more mentally handicapped, no more useless lazybones to just suck up all the taxpayers' dollars into the endless black hole of welfare. Only the fit, functional and employable will be left to enjoy the limited resources of our earth. It sounds like utopia. For the common good, I'll even volunteer to go first.
It's not just the sick people that are too expensive. He's cutting spending all across the welfare and housing sectors, and making it more expensive to get health care or tertiary education. The nation is in debt and in need. We all have to do our bit.
For example, as of next year, people under 30 will not be able to receive any unemployment benefits until they show they have been looking for a job for six months. So if you're in your 20's, and you're on a low wage, you probably don't have much in the way of savings. If you lose your job, or you get bullied and abused at work and can't cope with it, or you get sick and can't get to a doctor at the right time to get the appropriate medical certificate, suddenly you can't pay your rent. Then you're homeless, and once you don't have a home to put it all in, you lose all your stuff. And then you have nothing and it seems impossible to get back on your feet again. It may well be impossible without the support of friends, family or charity organisations.
I've been dependent on the Disability Support Pension since the age of 18 - my whole adult life. Tony's worried that this has been a waste of money, and that I should have been made to help myself by supporting myself. It's true that there have been some relatively brief periods in my life where my health was fairly good and I might have been able to support myself. But without reliable income support, I would have just lost everything every time I had another relapse. Looking back as objectively as I can, I really believe that without the pension, I wouldn't be alive by now. I wouldn't have made it. I can see if that if the welfare system were in the state it is in now when I was 18, I'd really most likely be dead by now.
And that's okay. I can appreciate the desire to create a fitter, leaner, stronger society the way we did in prehistoric times, by eliminating the weak. But it's obvious what's going to happen to here. We're going to end up with a whole lot of dispossessed and mentally ill people running around on the streets, committing crimes out of desparation and upsetting decent, tax-paying folks. It's going to get ugly. Fortunately, I have a better idea.
If Tony would just invest a few dollars in a few discreet, hygienic euthanasia centres in all the major cities, then all us useless, non-productive, overdemanding disadvantaged people could be taken care of quietly, neatly and painlessly. No mess, no fuss. No more crazy people, no more frail elderly, no more mentally handicapped, no more useless lazybones to just suck up all the taxpayers' dollars into the endless black hole of welfare. Only the fit, functional and employable will be left to enjoy the limited resources of our earth. It sounds like utopia. For the common good, I'll even volunteer to go first.
I am sure a great many people would volunteer to use the facilities. I would be saddened by you leaving this life for the next. One day all governments may choose to provide elimination centers rather than Disability Support. And it will be a sad, sad day.
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