From Job seeker Vicky Harrison commits suicide after she was rejected for 200 jobs | Mail Online:
A bright 21-year-old killed herself after more than 200 unsuccessful job applications.Vicky Harrison had dreamed of a career as a teacher or a television producer, but gave up hope for the future, her family said yesterday. A day after her latest rejection, and on the eve of her fortnightly trip to sign on, she wrote heartbreaking notes to her parents and boyfriend saying ‘I don’t want to be me any more’ and took a huge drug overdose.
[…] Mr Harrison added: ‘I think she was upset that she had no money and she felt she was losing touch with her friends because she couldn’t go
out. She never wanted any charity and that is why she was so desperate for work.
‘What upsets us so much is that there are obviously so many other people in a similar position.’
[…] Critics say Labour policies are creating a ‘lost generation’ of school leavers unable to find employment.
Comments Carl Svanberg:
This tragic story really breaks my heart. Unfortunately, the case of Vicky Harrison is far from unique.
Unemployment tends to make people anxious and depressed. I would, therefore, argue that Vicky Harrison is, in this respect, yet another… casualty of the welfare state.
Why? Because the welfare state is the *primary* cause of unemployment. In part, because of all the high taxes required to finance the welfare state. In part, because of minimum wage laws, pushing out the least productive, and laws granting the unions the power to enforce *de facto* minimum wages, pushing out the more productive.
Since these, and other welfare state policies, create unemployment, they also drive desperate, anxious and depressed people into suicide.
If we want a more humane society, a society where people are free to pursue their own lives and happiness, where the government doesn’t stop people from offering and taking jobs, then the welfare state has got to go.