Just Received: Terms and Conditions: Welfare Edition

A selection of jabs at the words our lords and masters beat us over the head with. Here are some of our favourites. Collect the set at: www.wealthofnegations.org

AUSTERITY
A notion of collective sacrifice is invoked by those who do not have to make sacrifices, with the promise that austerity will somehow purge the collective and its individuals of their excesses, toxins or sins, and that in the long run we will all be better off for the experience. This familiar bedtime story, aimed especially at parents hoping that it will turn out to be true for their children, now tells us to defer those ‘appetites and pleasures’ that were so encouraged in yesteryear’s bank advertisements telling you not to put it off, but to take that holiday-of-a-lifetime now!

GIVE THEM AN INCH AND THEY’LL TAKE A MILE
A constant anxiety of the rich and the ruling class and their various enforcement agencies. A constant justification for stinginess, Toughlove and worse.

INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVOUR
You, a person of importance, tell a lie, smear an innocent person, or have your goon squad manhandle pensioners, and you are found out. As a person of importance it is not then inexcusable, iniquitous, or invidious. Rather, it is inappropriate as if socks had been given to a teenager as a Christmas present, or the quality of the wine complained of at a State Banquet. This useful phrase from the New Labour era is likely to run and run.

THE ROUGH AND THE SMOOTH
Just accept, you’re told, at the very moment life is at its hardest. There are life rhythms, Swings and Roundabouts, they say. Hearing these smug words, like you’re just one more idiot in the queue, is guaranteed to make it that much harder to endure.

TOUGH LOVE
It’s all for your own good, being punished by those who really care about you and worry that you’re not going to shape up.

“Being cruel to be kind is just ordinary cruelty with an excuse made for it.”