- Unemployment

Another extraordinary depressing waste of a potentially great human resource .

People out of the habit of working find it harder to get back into it , even if they can find a job.

A system where recipients of unemployment benefit were obliged to earn their benefits by working the number of hours calculated by dividing the amount received by an hourly rate equivalent to the minimum wage, would help maintain self-esteem and help undermanned needy organisations.  Examples of these could be charities or associations, company for lonely pensioners,caring for elderly relatives, voluntary work abroad, conversation for immigrants seeking to learn the indigenous language and crisis action in war torn or natural disaster zones.

This could be implemented on a simple trust basis relying on  personal integrity, civil pride and peer pressure or backed up by the weekly issue of a time sheet possibly signed off by responsible members of the public, (which could also serve as a reference for potential future employees),and random spot checks to limit the cost of implementing this to the minimum.