• JackGreenEarth
    link
    fedilink
    English
    341 year ago

    And let me just point out the cost of living crisis is entirely artifical. We have enough stuff, the 1%ers just don’t want to share

    • @Aux
      link
      English
      -101 year ago

      Share what exactly? How do you expect to share a mansion to buy some school uniforms, for example?

      • @FooBarrington
        link
        English
        81 year ago

        Mansions don’t fall from the sky, they are built. To build a mansion you have to spend money. If you don’t spend your money on a mansion, you can use it for something else, like school uniforms.

        • @clayj9
          link
          English
          61 year ago

          Amazing this is too hard a concept for some to reach by themselves.

        • @Aux
          link
          English
          -71 year ago

          Yeah, but the mansion is already there and the money went to the builders. So, what’s your plan exactly? Take the money from the builders?

          • @FooBarrington
            link
            English
            51 year ago

            When do you think the last mansion was built?

            • @Aux
              link
              English
              -6
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              How’s that relevant to my question? It’s not. But I’ll give you the answer, as it seems you’re struggling hard - you can’t split ones wealth. The end.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                4
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                you can’t split ones wealth. The end.

                Yes you can, it’s called tax, and it splits off a fraction of your assets when paid.

                No idea why OP was focussing on mansions, but a property tax would sort that problem. Stick a £2m threshold on it so it only hits the filthy rich. Before you whine about asset rich cash poor; dont care sell it if you can’t pay. People are dying.

                • @Aux
                  link
                  English
                  -41 year ago

                  You can’t tax wealth. It never works.

              • @FooBarrington
                link
                English
                31 year ago

                Again. The mansions don’t fall from the sky, they are built. Not every mansion has already been built. Why are you acting like people only buy pre-existing mansions?

                • @Aux
                  link
                  English
                  -61 year ago

                  What are you talking about? Mmm? I gave you a specific scenario, why are you trying to move goalposts? You lost your argument, just shush now, kid.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        51 year ago

        We need more wealth taxes, increased public spending, and wage increases for the public sector and the lowest paid jobs. And we really need to be putting serious effort into introducing some kind of universal income. That’s how you share wealth.

        • @Aux
          link
          English
          -61 year ago

          You can’t tax wealth.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            41 year ago

            Wut?

            I mean I can’t, you’re right, but the government and HMRC can. If the government actually wanted to.

            • @Aux
              link
              English
              -71 year ago

              Taxing wealth doesn’t work and never did. We have a few thousand years of experience with that.

              • Tenebris Nox
                link
                fedilink
                English
                51 year ago

                Groan. Western countries have at times used taxes on wealth to enable massive infrastructure development. Straight after WW1 and WW2 almost all Western countries introduced “profit” taxes of 80-90% and increased taxes on the wealthy. It was the only way the UK, for instance, could rebuild after the war and why we have an NHS and used to have a great welfare state.

                I don’t actually believe we should tax the excessively wealthy. I think we should take what they’ve stolen over the centuries back into common democratic ownership.

                • @Aux
                  link
                  English
                  -51 year ago

                  UK didn’t have wealth taxes post war. Because wealth taxes don’t work. Off you go back to school.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    251 year ago

    My kid just started secondary school the cost of their uniform is fucking ridiculous. Easily running into the 100s.

    They needed socks with the schools logo on it. Absolutely ridiculous.

    • @Squeak
      link
      English
      141 year ago

      My son is in primary school, but they’re pretty chill. Must be a red jumper, but doesn’t need the school logo. The standard, must be grey pants, black shoes, grey socks etc… but at the end of the year he’s usually grown out of his current pair of shoes, so for the last 2 weeks he’s in trainers because we don’t want to buy new shoes for 2 weeks that he’ll have likely grown out of before the next school year - they completely understand.

    • @thehatfoxOP
      link
      English
      141 year ago

      It’s about time we abandoned school uniforms altogether, it’s a burden on both parents and teachers.

      • TheEmpireStrikesDak
        link
        fedilink
        English
        131 year ago

        I’m in two minds about school uniform. I don’t like the concept in general, but in my own personal experience, I was glad we did have it. We didn’t have much money, and my mum was really strict about western clothes. I would have been picked on for not having any designer clothes/branded trainers (good old 90s) and wearing Indian clothes.

        We didn’t have those stupid logo rules though. As long as it was the right colour and we had a school badge attached to the jumper, it was fine.

        • @Lazylazycat
          link
          English
          51 year ago

          I grew up poor and I got picked on for wearing baggy, second-hand uniforms. I would have been so much more comfortable in my own clothes.

        • NotAPenguin
          link
          fedilink
          31 year ago

          School uniforms aren’t a thing outside rich people schools here in Denmark.
          In all the schools I went to no one gave a shit which brand of clothes you wore and no one was picked on for being poor.

          • tal
            link
            fedilink
            21 year ago

            Same here in the US – I can’t recall anyone people being picked on for clothes, though I’m sure it must have happened.

            People sure did get picked on for other things, though.

        • @Jolan
          link
          English
          31 year ago

          Most bully’s just find something else to bully you about, if not your clothes it’s your hair, if not your hair it’s the way you walk etc. Bullying can’t be solved by trying to make the victims ‘normal’. The problem lies with the bully’s not the victims.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          11 year ago

          An alternative is to just have a more strict dress code (eg black shirt, no logo) rather than specific items sold directly by the school.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        9
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The idea is break the class divide so rich people don’t have better clothes etc. and also create a sense of belonging. Which I don’t totally disagree with.

        But due to cost that’s exactly what happens as poorer people buy second hand.

        I would be happy if each school picked from a selection of colours and then you could buy them from anywhere creating decent competition for sales.

        • @thehatfoxOP
          link
          English
          111 year ago

          I can’t say I’ve ever seen uniforms do anything to combat the class divide. Better of kids had clean, well fitting uniforms and poorer kids had ill fitting hand-me-downs full of holes. Then there is bags, pencil cases, football boots and all the other bits and bobs that go along with school. If anything it’s a just a myth that certain people keep telling themselves to pretend the class divide doesn’t matter in education.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            2
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            I think it’s to prepare them for wearing a uniform at work more than anything.

            As you say it doesn’t really help the class divide at all.

            • @thehatfoxOP
              link
              English
              61 year ago

              Which is itself a bit anachronistic now. Dress codes are much more casual in today’s workplaces, especially for more modern companies. Even those that do have uniforms are often a lot simpler.

        • tal
          link
          fedilink
          3
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I think that if kids voted on whether to have a uniform, you’d find that very few schools would have one.

          I think that the reason that the state doesn’t mandate uniforms in general life for adults on the same grounds is because the adults have a say in the matter and wouldn’t tolerate it.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        91 year ago

        The guidence is to provide as few branded items as possible.

        I’m actually going to report my kids school as literally every item is branded. Including the fucking socks! SOCKS!!!

        But it only came in a year ago and allows for existing contracts to be completed.

  • AutoTL;DRB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    71 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Schools are handing out clothing and food to children amid the cost of living crisis, while teachers report deteriorating hygiene among pupils as families cut back on brushing teeth, showering and even flushing the toilet.

    More than 80% of senior leaders told researchers that cost-of-living pressures had increased both the number of children in need of additional support and the level of need, particularly in the most disadvantaged schools.

    The NFER report, published on Thursday, paints an alarming picture of hungry, ill-kempt children whose lives are being profoundly affected – their basic needs unmet – as their parents struggle.

    Teachers told researchers they were worried that some children in special schools did not have vital specialist equipment including wheelchairs and mobility aids.

    One teacher in a mainstream school said: “So many of our students are struggling with behaviour and mental health issues because life is harder outside school.” Another added: “The worst thing is the hidden poverty and the fact that we cannot support everyone.

    Jenna Julius, the NFER research director and co-author of the report, said the cost of living crisis was having a profound impact on pupils and families.


    The original article contains 689 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • Tenebris Nox
    link
    fedilink
    English
    41 year ago

    Schools are also providing free meals and access to hardship funds for teachers who can’t survive on their salaries.

    UK is a horror show of increasing poverty across the board.