But isn't the government asking people to save for their retirement?
Yes, yes they are.
Out of their wages?
Yes, I believe so.
And isn't it a bit like Robert Maxwell thieving the pension funds of hardworking normal people through his own financial mismanagement?
Yes, it is. How perceptive you are.
But other people are worse off and don't have a pension with such good conditions. You greedy, greedy public sector workers.
These terms haven't been handed to us on a plate. They have been negotiated and fought for, and need to be protected (last time we saw off an attack was 2006 when the current SELF FUNDING pension scheme was agreed.)
£10,000 a year is not a lot of money to live on. When you can't work again. And you've given your working life to public service. If other people are worse off, how does that make it right?
It's like people saying to the Ford women factory workers who brought about the Equal Pay Act "You shouldn't be striking because there are women factory workers in India who get 4p a week!" (btw Ford had to change their practices globally after this, which improved the working conditions of people around the world.)
It is nonsense. How is our not striking going to help them?
And if conditions improve for workers in one sector, it sets precedents for other industries to follow. People power, instead of just exploitation.
Come off it. What about those lovely long holidays you teachers get?
I'm sorry. I'd rather not, to be honest, especially as the prices go up for us. And for those of us without kids, we can't get away from them in school holidays. But the holidays are for the families too - you parents do want to spend some time with your kids, don't you... don't you?
Yes yes. But you're still greedy, other people in this country are worse off...
Let me break it down: if we have less money when we retire, and can't afford our rent and bills and food, then we will be MORE RELIANT ON THE STATE.
And will be competing with those other people who didn't have a decent pension scheme for a shrinking pool of money instead of being self-reliant because we saved throughout our working lives, as the government has exhorted us to.
DOH!!
It is a false argument to set working people against each other and distract from the corporations who are the real money thieves.
It is hard to understand why public sector workers are getting spanked for saving money out of their own wages, towards supporting themselves in their old age when they can no longer work.
I love the headline of this Torygraph article that Rog sent me. "Shock Horror - Teachers' Prudent Financial Management revealed!!!"
Everything we've done has been transparent - we've put our money into a sustainable, affordable scheme & everyone knows where it is and what we've done with it. Which is more than you can say for the banks who got us into this crisis in the first place...
The whole point to the protest against cuts in education, health and welfare is that they are wholly unnecessary, ideologically driven and that there is an alternative.
It's misdirection and lies, but what do you expect from short term Tory thinking?
140 odd years after Marx wrote Das Kapital, & I can't believe we're still falling for this lame old Divide & Rule shit.