Agree with much of what you have said. I firmly believe in the concept of a minimum living wage and, to my mind, any company that says they cannot afford to pay this does not have a sound business model. I understand that smaller companies may struggle as wage costs are often a large chunk of any cost centre, but then the government should help these companies in other ways (eg taxes) to help them with this as surely the aim is to encourage more people into work rather than living off benefits. I am not anti-business and those with the drive and ability should be allowed the rewards of all their hard graft, but not at the expense or exploitation of others (eg poor wages/conditions). It is far too easy for the press (especially the more right-wing ones) to drag people into debates about how people might defraud the benefits system or how NHS "tourists" fleece the system or how much of the taxpayers money has to be spent on the migrants who come across the channel on dingys but, whilst all of these topics may warrant discussion, this is really all deflection. The deflection is there because no-one seems to want to properly discuss the real issue in this country which is the growing divide between the haves and have nots and how such a small proportion of the population of the country increasingly own such a large percentage of its wealth. The issues of affordable housing, of education and the NHS continue to be unresolved. Anyone notice how the majority of the "key workers"-careworkers/nurses/ posties/retail workers-were amongst the poorest paid? Of course all of those who work so hard for what they have are angered by the workshy or those on benefits who have the latest mobile phone and Sky package but claim they dont get enough to feed their family or the single mum with 4 kids by 4 different fathers who has got herself a larger council house because of it but all this perceived "lost" taxpayers money is a drop in the ocean of the country's economy in comparison to the vast profits made by the few. Companies such as Google and Amazon should pay their fair share of taxes but to do so means a change in the law that currently allows the legal loopholes they take advantage of and to do this, of course, would also impact on the vested interests of some of those in government. Doubtless the causes and solutions behind many of these issues are not as straightforward as they might first seem, but surely no-one would disagree that the vastly uneven distribution of wealth in this country is not right?
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