UK state benefits are too high says former newspaper editor.

 

Kelvin MacKenzie

The tabloid newspaper hack, Kelvin Mackenzie, talks a lot of horseshit when it comes to Britain's benefit system. He's another one of those social pundits, who thinks that people are living a cushy life in Britain on state benefits and that they need to be cut. He says that in the U. S., nobody talks about state benefits because they're that low, so people are incentivized to work. 

If you're receiving Universal Credit (UC), and are over 25, you will currently receive about £98 a week. Try living on £98 a week in Britain today. Nearly 40%, of people who claim UC, are in work. They claim UC because their wages are so low that they need to be topped by UC payments. Others who claim UC may have caring responsibilities. If you claim UC because your unemployed, you have to be available for work and demonstrate that you are actively seeking work. If you fail to do so, you will be sanctioned, and your benefits can be suspended. 

The point about the unemployment benefit system in Britain, was always about insuring you against loss of employment, through no fault of your own. It wasn't designed for people to live a life of dignified otiosity at the public's expense. That only applies to the British Royal Family. If you gave up your job without just cause or lost it through gross misconduct, you didn't get unemployment benefit. There is also a benefit cap. 

America is one of the most inegalitarian countries in the world. In a speech that he made to a liberal funding event, Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, yelled: "I don't need Bush's tax cut! I have never worked a fucking day in my life." The average income for a black American is 61% less per year than the average white income. That is the same percentage difference as it was in 1880. Black women are four times more likely than white women to die while giving birth. Black levels of unemployment have been roughly twice those of whites since 1954. African Americans have been on the lowest rung of the economic ladder since the day they were beaten and dragged to the country in chains. 

In his book 'Capital in the 21st Century', the economist Thomas Picketty, says the average income of the parents of Harvard students is $450,000 dollars which corresponds to the average income of the top 2% of the U.S. income hierarchy. He adds, "Such findings do not seem compatible with the idea of selection by merit." In the U.S. parents in the top 1% income level are overrepresented in elite colleges.