I was just reading about the government’s newly-created apprenticeships over at the Sunday Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-2044130/Apprentice-jobs-racket-openings-fall-short-firms-collect-millions.html. I understand the pay for these jobs is £2.50ph as being apprenticeships they fall outside low wage regulation. So then, on the one hand the government raises the minimum wage but on the other it reclassifies jobs to make them pay less than that minimum. These people should be learning the ropes alright but they should be receiving the minimum wage while doing so and their employers should not be getting any taxpayers money for it. Giving it to them represents no more than theft from the public purse.
Further, these unfortunates being so low paid will bring very little purchasing power to the economy, far less than if they were properly employed, thus the economy is dealt a double blow. This is the government damaging the economy to subsidise its big business chums. This is bad enough in itself, but in the long-term it damages the financial environment in which we all must dwell. It may bring some short-term political advantage but in the long run. It does no-one any good. Our leaders don’t seem able to see that suggesting to me at least there’s something quite seriously wrong with them medically. One hears of instances where unfit leaders are declared to be so by their second-in-commands and duly replaced. What mechanism is there to bring into play when it’s the leaders of the country itself who are quite clearly unfit for command? In my view, we’ve needed it for some time and that dismal fact is increasingly becoming more apparent.
BB