Dole bludgery (DB) is defined by the following equation:

DB = NSB – VA – ESA

Where:

NSB = net state benefits received excluding “normal” entitlements such as Medicare benefits, old age pensions, educational benefits, etc.

VA = Value Added.

ESA = Employment Seeking Activity. By definition ESA = Unemployment Benefits (UB) if an unemployed person is genuinely looking for work. Someone who is unemployed and is honestly seeking work is not a dole bludger.

Note that VA can be negative. Someone can be so bad at their job that they subtract value. Take the case of, say, a civil servant who earns $100k but is so obstructionist that he subtracts $200k from the nation’s wealth every year. His DB would be:

DB = +100k – (-200k) = +100k + 200k = +300k

This establishes the important principle that you need not be unemployed to be a dole bludger. The civil servant in question might be working very hard to get his VA down to -200k.

With due immodesty I call this equation the Meyer Dole Bludge Equation or MDBE. I think it encapsulates what is meant by dole bludgery.

Now BY FAR the world’s biggest dole bludgers are major US and European bankers. They have persuaded governments to hand over TERABUCKS (1 Terabuck = $1,000,000,000,000) to bail them out. Their activities were definitely value subtracting and arguably continue to be so – also to the tune of TERABUCKS.

In fact no one else comes close to this class of dole bludgers. They have literally set a new standard for dole bludging that will, I hope, not soon be exceeded.

But I’m struggling with the question of who comes second. Admittedly it would be a very poor second. But who would it be?

I await nominations for the world’s SECOND worst dole bludgers

Well, I wonder why you chose such a complicated name, "Dole Bludgers(DB)", where you could more simply use "Pests(P)".

Anyway, the obvious candidates for the second place (if not the first), are the advertising industry, producing no goods and seducing people to buy things that they don't need, creating an unnecessary and wasteful flurry of activity and energy/resource consumption. Most of all, they rob people of their most invaluable and non-renewable asset - Free-Time(FT): where does this show on your equation?

The world's second worst "would be" dole bludger? Easy, TONY ABBOTT. I say "would be" because luckily he didn't become PM. If he had then the following figures would have applied:

His PM salary would have been about about $330,000 His budget black hole is $11,000,000,000. His total cost to the nation is $11,000,000,330

That's an 11 billion and 330 thousand cost to the taxpayers.

DB=+$330,000(-$11,000,000,000)=$330,000+$11,000,000,000=+$11,000,000,330

I checked those figures and they are correct.

No political bias in the dig at Abbott of course.

That game becomes so easy to play.

We could chalk up Rudd's ability to wipe out a large surplus and turn it into a larger deficit with a poorly managed "recovery" package. But then if you happen to like Labor you might put a different spin on that.

We could level some of the same charges against Obama but on a bigger scale.

We could mention the trillion dollar war that Bush took the US and others into.

Perhaps we could take a swipe at Clinton for not managing dealings with Osama Bin Laden better when he was President and adding to the situation that lead to so much that followed.

Maybe we could blame Jimmy Carter for his reported role in setting up the programs of lending which eventually triggered the GFC.

Those politicised games really depend so much on subjective views of others contributions and choices.

By almost any measure the 11 billion (if it's not a Swan directed stitch up) is small potatoes compared to many.

R0bert

Ok, let's just blame the US and UK bankers AKA the first post. The only question being which is the "second" worst dole bludger. I nominate the UK bankers for the # 2 award. Which makes the US bankers #1.