they could always not pop out sprogs that they can't afford
which some people do, even you have to admit that
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 15 Aug 2013, 12:31, 2 replies, latest was 12 years ago)

Many years ago a couple we knew made the most outlandish comment to us
"We will wait until we can afford to have kids"
You can never afford to have children you just have to make do
( hartley hare Just some prick who thinks it doesn't apply to him, Thu 15 Aug 2013, 12:34, Reply)

So, out of a population of nearly 70 million people
some people, a very, very small minority of all the people, will deliberately set ot to have kids that they know they can't afford.

However, some people will accidently get pregnant and not be happy having an abortion for many different reasons. On yet another hand some people will have a kid or two or three and suddnely find themselves in changed cicumstances, say through being made redundant, or through the death of a partner.

These other situations hugely outnumber the people who will deliberately have kids they can't afford, but I will digress slightly here to say that if your idea of an easy life is having children because you think it's worth getting a few quid extra in benefits then you have no idea what it's actually like to look after a child.

And yet you think that focusing on this tiny minority, and in fact using their mere existance as a reason to justify punishing people who through no fault of their own end up in trouble, is the way to put your argument?
(Bazongaloid, Thu 15 Aug 2013, 12:35, Reply)

nope, i wasn't talking about benefit scroungers - i think we all know they exist a tiny bit in real life and primarily on the fail front page
but if you're going to blame people for making money on the housing market for squeezing families into small houses, maybe that social responsibility goes two ways.

after all, if you sell your house, and you've made a £100k profit, are you going to say, "oh no, i can't possibly take that money mr buyer, because it's ramping up the housing prices" ?
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 15 Aug 2013, 12:40, Reply)

You're completely missing the point here.
People were encouraged to view houses as an investment. This has driven the cost of housing up to the point where it is now unrealistic form most people to be able to afford to buy a house even to live in without assistance from family members (which is okay) or the government (which is not okay, and is simply making the problem worse).

I don't even know what you're saying about people needing to be able to afford their kids since if you aren't talking about benefit cheats, or to be more realistic, people who think that difficulty of raising another child is worth the small amount of extra money they receive in benefits, then you must be talking about either people who have got themselves into a situation by accident where they have more kids they can afford, or you're talking about a number of people so small, that it is totally insignificant in the grand scheme of things to base any policy on them, other than a policy of appeasing people too stupid to understand that that is what you're doing.

The blame for the situation first lies with the previous governments for knowing that a housing bubble was a bad idea, but doing nothing about it. This started with Thatcher, but was perpetuated under Labour.

But it's now at a point where the current government, despite knowing full well that what they are doing is economic suiicde, are continuing to promote house prices as a measure of growth, despite the fact that the majority of new mortgages are currently going to buy-to-let properties, because people once again view hosues as an investment.
(Bazongaloid, Thu 15 Aug 2013, 12:48, Reply)

you are the one who was talking about families being squeezed into homes that are too small for them
are you saying that ALL these poor (as in unfortunate) people found themselves knocked up accidentally?

i don't disagree with your last para at all. however, i do think it's a fact of life that people will always see property as an investment, and you're never going to change that mindset.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 15 Aug 2013, 12:49, Reply)

No, i'm saying that people are being fucked over by constantly rising house prices,
which aren't being matched by rising wages.

Which bit of this don't you get?
(Bazongaloid, Thu 15 Aug 2013, 12:51, Reply)