{"id":442,"date":"2021-03-18T15:05:11","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/?page_id=442"},"modified":"2022-01-09T09:35:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T09:35:38","slug":"no-holidays-and-the-gig-economy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/february-2021-vol-502\/no-holidays-and-the-gig-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"No Holidays and the Gig Economy\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Lasenby<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

During the Christmas holiday I heard a Radio 4 programme in which the well-heeled were discussing what they had missed because of lockdown. They spoke longingly of the long-haul vacations they had not had (several each year), and then discussed the delights of places they had visited in Britain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought of those who never have holidays except possibly days out or a week in a caravan on a site not quite near the sea. But even this has been getting less and less possible every year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Far fewer people now than formerly can buy and run a car or pay for a holiday. A number of things have caused this: the terrible increase in rents, increases in all essentials including food, the significantly lower level of benefits that are paid, and very low wages. Worse still, some rents and wages are subsidised by the Government while the landlords and employers have an absolute right to have all their profits.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Gig Economy (with zero hours and no sickness benefit or paid holidays) is also part of the problem. All this makes for a grossly and increasingly unequal society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first word that comes to my mind is tax. When I started work in 1963 I paid 30% tax on what was not a large wage. There are solutions and we need to strive for them to make our society into a more equal one. Some Scandinavian countries do and they are happier for it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Back to February 2021 Newsletter Main Page<\/a><\/p>\n

Forty-Three<\/em> Newsletter \u2022 Number 502 \u2022 February 2021
\n<\/strong>Oxford Friends Meeting
\n43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW<\/p>\n

newsletter@oxfordquakers.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Lasenby During the Christmas holiday I heard a Radio 4 programme in which the well-heeled were discussing what they had missed because of lockdown. They spoke longingly of the long-haul vacations they had not had (several each year), and then discussed the delights of places they had visited in Britain.\u00a0 I thought of those … Continue reading No Holidays and the Gig Economy\u00a0<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"parent":341,"menu_order":193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1291,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/442\/revisions\/1291"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}