So do I start looking down my nose at other people again?

I was finally offered a job this week. Friday afternoon at 1400 CET.

It will start on April 11th (another six weeks of living on peanuts before that) - 24 days short of three years to the day when I had my heart attack. And 33 months after the crash of Lehman Brothers, the near crash of Merrill Lynch, and all the other problems caused by the already forgotten crash of 2008 (you can tell who really runs the media, can't you?).

The job is limited to 8 months, comes to an end at the end of November, and after that the future will be once again uncertain. But at least I will not be among the unemployed scum living on government handouts.

So are the unemployed really scum?

Not at all - IMHO. It is part of the media image though. Despite the fact that there are five times as many candidates as there are jobs, and underemployment is also rife (if you send all the white collar jobs to India as cheap labour, then what remains except underemployment - flipping burgers and the like?).

Unemployment is one of the two scourges of the age - along with debt-dependancy. The ability to create meaningful reasonably paying jobs (i.e. jobs that pay a living wage) seems to have disappeared in much of the world.

You are supposed to live by speculation (i.e. gambling), taking out ludicrous amounts of debt (always the road to ruin in my book) etc. Working for a living? Making enough to pay your way? Using your qualifications to good effect? Forget it! That was then, and this is now.

The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and nobody seems to want to fix the problem. Which is a sad reflection of the times.

If you lose your job, you deserve it, you are a loser etc. And all the other nonsense. For the next eight months though, I can again look down my nose at the losers and treat them with contempt? Contempt most of them do not deserve.

The aim, the target, of all societies should be meaningful full employment, and full use of the talent available. It should be financial responsibility at all levels of society - eliminating debt at all levels of society (not just public, but also private debt!).

The problem is - is anyone offering these objectives? If there is an effective political organisation with this degree of commitment, will you please tell me where? All that we seem to get is the same see-saw, where last year's failure is back offering last year's irresponsibility or incompetence (whether the Republicans in the US, the Tories in the UK, or the SPD in Germany). Short-tem thinking, no long-term objectives!

And unemployment and increased poverty for all! I, though, at least will not forget what people in those situations go through! Nor should anyone else!