@big e - @Parsifal - I have had difficult times, when young, three children and a husband who was a ready victim for people selling him 'businesses' (which were usually 'opportunities' gone sour for the seller or partner, even) - I sometimes wonder how we got through those times, untainted, honest and without government assistance. I remember scouring supermarkets for cheap foods - and finding all sorts of wonderful things the Australian public didn't buy, hence it was cheap - one food I remember fondly, was a seemingly endless supply of cod liver in tins, imported from Germany (East then) - really really cheap - now regarded as a delicacy and hard to source - also chicken liver was cheap, no-one wanted it - I crumbed it and it made wonderful meals - and of course tinned beans, another protein source, veggies were cheap and the Italian greengrocers always looked out for me. I remember finding 'molasses' in produce stores - bought a huge tin of it and fed it to my children along with a cheap and cooked oatmeal breakfast. But I had been through a hard school early in life - I believe we do not teach children genuine life skills - am not even sure, if it is schools who should do that, but parents. With the internet around, there is a huge amount of useful information available - why don't people access that? Everyone seems to have enough money for a mobile phone etc. - maybe even a tablet.
Those were difficult years, but I/we didn't even think of going to a government agency etc. for help. We managed to pull ourselves out of it - together - but we were prepared to work.
I remember one migrant couple - that was many year later - who managed to get the deposit for a house by pulling up and getting rid of someones huge palm trees - at the then great cost of $5000 - it was enough for a deposit for a house - then - the whole family did the job. I didn't witness this, was told by their children of that feat.
Now everyone is bleating for government assistance - don't know about 'the card' it seems the women want it, it's the men who obviously see a last vestige of male pride vanishing along with the control over that meager resource.
It might be better to train people at school age how to budget, cook cheap food, above all learn to 'cook' - a lost art and it seems a spectator sport for TV shows etc - teach ALL people - I had my own problems with one of my daughters who got right into the credit card thing when she became a teenager. She still likes spending money, but at least knows how to earn it, too. Need to run, sorry Taurisk
etc -
