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The terrible fear that someone, somewhere, is taking the piss | notalwaysthequietone @ Stuff and Things

notalwaysthequietone:

At the moment, I feel like the UK is being taken over by this fear, which is stoked by the government and especially by the right-winged media. 

Immigrants are taking the piss by having the temerity to want to come here in the first place and use our utterly amazing social security system to stand around on street corners (I’m not sure why they’d do this, given they all get five bedroom mansions with a butler, apparently). And  they’re taking the piss out of people who are supported entirely by social security.

People supported entirely by social security are taking the piss by having spare bedrooms, or a flatscreen television, or Sky TV, or other stereotypes. And they’re taking the piss out of the working poor, those people supported partially by state funding who work hard in their part-time or low paid full-time jobs but wonder why it is fair that People On Benefits (because they rarely think of themselves as People On Benefits) can afford big tellies while theirs sit in cupboards and only play freeview channels.

People supported partially by social security are taking the piss by not having to work full-time and not having to put their children in after school clubs. They’re taking the piss by not having to have a husband, and being able to support themselves and it’s not fair that these single Mums can just waltz around, picking their own kids up from school. Besides everyone knows that if we just paid a living wage these part-time workers would… oh. Anyway, they’re taking the piss.

And people who work full-time? It seems now that even they’re taking the piss, to an extent, especially if they’re part of a couple where both work full-time. They’re taking the piss out of couples who can afford for one person not to work but to raise the children and look after the home on a full-time basis, because it’s not fair that they get childcare tax breaks and those people rich enough, or prepared enough to make the necessary sacrifices for just one person to be the breadwinner, get nothing at all.

And so it goes. Everyone is scared that the person who earns that little bit less money than they, and is therefore perceived to receive that little bit more social security, is taking the piss.

Heck, it’s about more than just social security. Colleague A is scared that Colleague B is taking the piss out of her by leaving early now and again for her child’s school events. She chose to have a kid, and now she’s using them as an excuse to take the piss. Those kids hanging around outside the corner shop are taking the piss because they ought to be at home, doing the homework set by the school that’s funded by The Taxpayer. And so on.

I honestly think that in order to change this culture, we need to not only move away from the notion that people are taking the piss (that is, the argument posited by some people that “actually, it’s only a minority that take the piss”) but to actively embrace it.

Are some people taking the piss? I don’t know; maybe I define “taking the piss” differently than you. But here and now I’d like to say that as someone who has spent a large portion of her career paying taxes and national insurance not only do I not care if people do “take the piss”, I want them to. I want to live in a world where people can take the piss. I want to fund people taking the piss. Why?

Because I don’t want a world where everyone is a 40+ hour a week wage slave. I’ve done a job like that (60+ hours, in fact. Good money - commission - but bloody knackering) and I think that people should have the choice not to. I think people should be able to work part-time and pick their own children up from school or even give up paid work entirely and educate their children themselves on a full-time basis, and that this option should be available to people regardless of whether or not they have the financial support of a partner.

But not just parents; I think everyone should have the option to work part-time and spend the other part doing something they love, whether that’s writing, painting, singing or just going for long walks with their dog. Or even - and here’s the rub - sitting on the settee watching Jeremy Kyle on the Huge Flatscreen Television. Taking the piss.

That’s the world I want. How to achieve this? Buggered if I know. Citizen’s Income? Maybe. I’ve no idea. But I do know that we have to lose this fear that someone, somewhere is taking the piss. I believe that for starters, we all take the piss (how long have you, full-time worker, just spent reading this when you ought to be working?) at some point, and that we all deserve the right to do that. I also believe that, given the right to take the piss, surprisingly few people actually would; I believe that if you give someone something unconditionally - a gift, a right - it reduces the want of that person to abuse it. 

I don’t believe that many people abuse our current system of social security. I don’t believe that bringing up children, writing a blog, going for a walk, having an illness that means you don’t know each day whether or not you’ll have the strength to do any work, being to ill to work full stop, sitting around reading books or even watching Jeremy Kyle on a flatscreen television count as taking the piss (genuine cases of benefit fraud, which are bloody rare anyway possibly does count as taking the piss, but even there, when you set up such a punitive ludicrous system is it any wonder the odd person here and there gets the urge to play it?) but if they do?

So what? Let them. Let people take the piss. There’s enough to go around if we share generously what we can, starting with the richest and working our way down. Is that Socialism? I don’t know. Socialism, as I’ve heard it explained, sounds more like the state paying poor people a bit of cash in order to tell them what hoops to jump through. I’m talking unconditionality here.

But I can’t change the world, introduce a Citizen’s Income or alter the current system of social security. But I think despite this, we need to lose the fear that someone is taking the piss.

Next time someone says to you “but they get loads of benefits and all they do all day is sit around drinking cheap lager and watching ITV while you and I have to go to work and … and … and …” I recommend this. Instead of challenging their ridiculous stereotypes, why not just say “good”?