Unemployment

Unemployment. There's a fierce debate going on in Sweden right now since the new government suggested that unemployed should have to move to where the jobs are from day one of unemployment.

I am not sure what to think about this.

Part of me agrees. It is (excuse me) stupid to insist on a right to remain in your home for as long as you please despite not being able to support yourself, if there is a job available someplace else.

But of course there must be exceptions. Families. It's not a good idea to uproot and split a family because one parent is unemployed and must move 1000km's to get a job. Same with people who are unable to find suitable work because of various physical conditions, there's got to be a limit.
Then again, it should not be impossible to support a family on one salary either. Which it is if you are a sub nurse or cleaner or belong to some other category of professional which we (yes, us - the Swedish society) have decided is not worth as much as the rest of us (pet peeve this, that a nurse - who tends to my every need, to the young and the elders every need until the very end, something so vitally important and wonderful - is not considered worth anything).

If we were able to support a small family on one salary in this country we would have a whole different situation. Sure, equality experts would say it would be us, the women who "paid" for that with the usual stuff (no pension, no value). But what's to say it's a man's job to bring home that money? If women were paid equally we could do the money-making stuff just as good as any man... *sigh*

But I still think it's stupid to insist on staying somewhere just because you want to and expect the rest of us to gladly pay for it.

And yes yes, I know there would be parts of the country which would be completely emptied of people. But maybe that's natural? Maybe that's better for all of us? If we stopped polluting all parts of our land just because "we always did"?
If there are no jobs - there's got to be something wrong, right? If you can't start a company where you live, perhaps you should move - or at least come up with some serious suggestions to how we should change the way we do business in order to manage stuff more remotely?
I honour the companies who's opened so-called service bureaus in more remote areas. It's SMART. :-) They get cheap labour, almost no rent and if they're lucky they do most of their work electronically so all they need is internet - not trucks and trains (e.g. good for the environment).