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Deprivision through no fault of their own.

We watch very little TV because we find it’s neither informative nor entertaining. We choose to watch podcasts of documentaries and good stories including some movies.
I watched a PBS production called ‘Two American Families’ set in Milwaukee which is a large city in an industrial production state. Maybe it is in the zone which today is called the ‘the rust belt’. It was shot in the early 90’s. Each family had jobs in industrial production earning $17 per hour until these industries relocated to countries with cheaper labour. These families battled for years, frequently earning as little as $4 per hour. Each of the parents worked. They were living frugally on essential basics only but even this was beyond their means.

Well the documentary reviewed these families again in 2010. One had survived and sent a son to university; a proud family but still living in hardship. The other family failed and split, Dad couldn’t take the strain of not being able to provide. However they both had found work again, dad in industrial production and mum in health care. The house was repossessed and mum’s future ambition was to be able to purchase a site in a caravan (trailer) park.
Both husband and wife in both families wanted to work but there were simply no jobs no matter how hard they searched. I felt so sorry for them I became a little teary.
In Australia we have generous welfare to cater for such people. Despite its enormous cost to the nation it has kept people afloat especially during this covid affair. However this has an unwelcome side effect. Too many think they are entitled to be kept and will not find a job. Some not having worked for years. I’m not kidding, it is ridgy-didge. These people have considerable political power. Political parties over cater for them because they are swinging voters and it is that small number of self-interested people that often provides a win for the most generous political party. It too is not a perfect system. Unemployment is at an all-time high and we source our labour from abroad and fly them in. I’m not kidding.