Thinking about my next appointment with Fedcap employment on Friday. I wish I knew more about them and their arrangements with the DWP; is the payment structure similar with the Work Programme? I can't imagine it's far different.
The last appointment was, so to speak, pointless, I mean, nothing happened. I feel like I'm interacting with a machine. A 45 minute interview that offered so little it was ended in a third of the time. Not by me, either. To be fair, with things as they are, there probably isn't much they can do anyway. But if the government can, and presumably does, pay them (their scheme is affiliated with the DWP so they must have a working contract), then I can't help thinking it would be better to just give people that money directly. Anything else is a waste, though obviously not as far as they are concerned since that's their revenue. As I said before, in this relationship, I am being exploited so they can profit. I add the value to their labour: without clients or customers they have nothing.
I fully expect to hear from the Jobcentre in the next few weeks. It is approaching six months from the last Work Focussed Interview. That took place at the end of Summer. What a halcyon time that was, a paradise compared to the cold and the covid of now, but even then the appointment took place over the phone. I wasn't asked to attend in person, thankfully. It was of course a complete waste of time as it will be now. I am assuming that it will be exactly the same process as before. I can't see the logic, now, of being asked to attend, but the one thing you cannot do with the DWP is assume. That's the road to ruin so I will have to act accordingly and perhaps assume the worst. It's not good for the soul having to operate that way, but you are not given any choice. They don't have a standard operating procedure.
Why don't we have a society that supports the creative arts? Clearly our society isn't interested in helping people reach their true potential when it prioritises wage slavery. When I asked Fedcap if they had of knew of any financial support for music (be it grants, loans, schemes, whatever), they said help was conditional on whether the result would be paid employment. Well naturally that prioritises wage slavery. It's lot more likely they would help fund getting a CSCS card, for instance, or a pair of work shoes, rather than an investment into someone's future. But one choice leads to the enrichment of culture and social growth, the other just perpetuates a capitalist system.
You might retort by saying "well if you got a job you could buy the stuff you need that way". Sure, but again you are just reinforcing wage slavery. Why is that desirable? This also assumes that, having done a full day's work for a master, that you'll have the time and energy left for your passions. This idea that you can work for the life you want is often not how things work out; how can they when people are pressured into prioritising their job. Work more hours, commute further, spend more on the things you need to reproduce that labour (food, rent, etc). Capitalism is all consuming. Your own life is a luxurty that is increasingly put out of reach. I don't think that is a virtue, despite how the capitalist class tells you that you're "paying your dues". There's no such thing, and don't disbelieve that actually purusuing yoru passions isn't. That's the real work.
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