i wouldnt mind paying taxes and having to pay back a student loan, as long as i knew the money thats not being used to help students, is helping people who really need it.

not pot smoking lazy criminals. thats the salt in the wound.

and there was more to the story making it even more ridiculous.

so the government had spent hundreds of thousands on this guy alone (not including his family) each year for a number of years all because he was addicted to pot.
Nevermind sending him to rehab to get him off the stuff, lets just pay him thousands of dollars so he can keep smoking it and getting more screwed up than he already is.

people with a record like his (comitting crime, gang connections, drug usage) should not be given any sort of funding from the government, except maybe rehab.

And here me struggling to pay the rent even with 2 jobs because im trying to study for a degree, getting thousands of dollars in debt each year through the student loan, and i dont qualify for a ‘studen allowance’ or a Benefit for students over the age of 18, because my parents earn just over the threshold.

im engaged and living away from home and 19 years old, the government is going to go by what my parents earn untill i am 25 years old, before they give me funding for study.

we are legally allowed to go to prison when we are 18, we can be on the dole dealing drugs and sitting on our ass being paid by the government when we are 16, but we cant get funds to help with living costs while we study untill we turn 25. a lovely little law our government slipped through without consulting the public or putting it to a vote.

people who are studying are more likely to bring money back into the economy and benefit the financial situation of the entire country a hell of a lot more than people on the dole. yet the people who are studying hard build up thousands of of debt per year, while the bludgers get hand outs of thousands of $ per year.

as you have probably noticed i could go on forever about this issue, and i cant comprehend why, with the amount of people in my position in NZ that nothing has been done to try and change the situation.

i guess those are just 2 extremes, if you are a single mother, or genuinely have a dissability that couldnt be fixed through rehabilitation then the benefit is incredibly helpful. and its helpful to people if they lose thier job to bridge the gap before they can find another.
but for those people who dont try, im embarrassed for them, imagine being so pathetic that you had to live off money handed to you from other people who are probably working themselves silly and still struggling to get by.

i have actually heard of cases where people on the dole have shown up to interviews in thier jim jams just so they get turned down and they can stay on the dole (in nz you sometimes have to prove your looking for a job by going to interviews.)

honestly im glad u brought it up, its a topic that really grinds my gears. i hope that one day when im rich famous and influencial i can do something about it to make it better for the next generation of students.

once again thank you for listening to my rant