Rodney Hide in The Herald:
Employment Favours The Keen and Hard Working:
I can’t argue with much of it and I love this passage:
“When I was a politician I was supposed to pretend sympathy for people without a job. The truth is I never had much.”
I expect Rodney could smell those who weren’t really trying to find a job a mile off. Literally and figuratively.
When you don’t have a job for a period of time you lose interest in getting out of bed, unless you have other strong reasons or a lifetime of good work habits behind you. Showering becomes less of a priority on your to-do list.
I experienced a period of unemployment once and I noticed a drop in my motivation. I just sat around and smoked ciggies in my pajamas all day. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it for a time.
And it’s human nature to fall into sloth if the way forward isn’t clear.
However, we thrive only by being unswerable  to someone, a workmate, a boss, our other half. Everyone can slip off the path of good habits; the trick is to get back on the right track.
Prior to this period I had had numerous part time jobs usually through Student Job Search.
I turned the first part-time job interview I went to after leaving uni unqualified, into  a career: Book-keeping. I employed three other people part time and had numerous clients.
After four years, I put my business on hold  to recover from illness and have a family. Before doing so I proved to myself that I could support myself and my loin-fruit if push came to shove. This is important to do as a female.
 I made sure I was aware of good savings and investment ideals and was well insured by the time we were in our late 20’s. The insurance coverage allowed me to recover from a traumatic illness without our financial ship sinking
In my experience, it’s not hard to get a small job or unpaid volunteering unless there are other mitigating factors. We survive and thrive on our own efforts and a handful of friends and family.
This goes against the current ideology that permeates New Zealand that only by caring and putting more structures in place for those in need will the problems of society be fixed. A lot of that myth is perpetrated by the middle class who wouldn’t want to see an animal let alone another human experience suffering, even though they themselves may not be suffering.
