Plans to force jobless into unpaid work are unfair

Rowan Williams: Plans to force jobless into unpaid work are unfair | Politics | The Guardian

Well... my take on this is - if there was already 100% employment in this country and there were still thousands of unfilled vacancies for full time and part time and flexi-time jobs going begging - then - yeah this would seem fair. Possibly. Maybe. But there aren't and unless we look again at how we work and start asking crucial questions about how and why we work - we're not going to get any where.

But forcing people to work for their woefully meagre benefits...
Well the following random thoughts occur to me...

1. This is just slavery by the back door. If there are all these jobs that need doing, supposedly - then wouldn't it make far more sense to make these into proper full time - paid jobs which will have the people doing them off the dole figures and paying these taxes and supporting themselves...

2. Or they just noddy jobs that aren't worth doing - which is just demeaning and a punishment. Should working be a punishment? What sort of mixed message are they giving out there? Obviously (ha ha ha) they haven't thought through any of this...

Either way... having state sponsored slaves aren't they going to be competing against private firms doing the same sort of jobs? That's a big dent in the Tories' blind worship of the free market enterprise system isn't it? [or is it? ....mmmmmm....??? let's keep those wages artificially low shall we? In our race to the bottom.)

3.