Now this crap is spreading from the US to the UK. I know that it might not be that simple, but some of the UK policies have clearly been inspired by the cruel US system. People were in an uproar over the adoption of food stamps in the UK instead of emergency loans of cash. All the political crap and environmental problems, etc. are truly global now. The people in power float around above us all, policies in one country influence policies in another. We can't afford to be ignorant of what's going on. But it's so hard to pick out the signal from the noise sometimes. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

"...he was told he was no longer eligible for the new incapacity benefit, his benefits would be stopped immediately and that, despite his numerous health problems, he was fit for work and should go and find a job. He appealed, but lost. He isn't even eligible for jobseeker's allowance. And there are no jobs for him. When he turned down a position because it was only 16 hours a week and almost all of his salary would have gone on commuting costs, he says the staff at the Jobcentre called him "lazy". "Well, how come I worked for 23 years in the care trade and only had to stop through illness? I didn't ask to be ill. I didn't ask for this to happen," he says. "I know people who run businesses and they've told me they wouldn't touch me with a bargepole. There are well people out there looking for jobs, so people like me aren't going to get a look-in."" - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

Well, if Charles Dickens is to be believed, they've got their own long-standing tradition of cruelty over there. - Victor Ganata

True. They're just adding the latest new twist. And it sounds like their social welfare programs were at least a little more generous at least in the past few decades, and they're being steadily chipped away. We have nothing like the emergency loans here in the US. At least nothing that I know of. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

Yeah, and Thatcherism was its own thing, not a US import. - Andrew C (see frenf.it)

Yeah, I only know a little bit about Thatcherism. Learning more in bits and pieces. Were programs like emergency loans (or crisis loans) able to survive her time as prime minister? Or did they develop later? I'm admittedly a bit foggy on the details. Food stamps specifically do seem to be something inspired by the US system. I guess the crisis loans from the Social Fund were stopped in April 2013 and partly replaced by food stamps? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

I'm awfully light on the details myself. - Andrew C (see frenf.it)

Not to minimize how awful it is, but just from the first paragraph, I think if this guy lived in the U.S., he'd be dead, because they would've cut off his health insurance as soon as he stopped working. - Victor Ganata