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.

Samsung

I said US AND European bankers. That includes the Brit bankers.

I hereby nominate Saudi princes for the number two spot. There are about 100,000 of them and they're each guaranteed a MINIMUM of $360,000 per year.

Even if they all got the minimum it works out to about $36 billion a year - around 10% of Saudi Arabia's oil revenue.

Of course many of them get much more than the minimum.

Their value add is definitely in negative territory. While depriving Saudis, especially Saudi women, of a good education they fund madrassahs that train kids to be suicide bombers in various part of the world.

Before the global financial meltdown I would have put them in the number one spot.

I think they put Rudd and Abbot in the shade even with the NBN.

Anyone got any more suggestions for the number two spot?

"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."

You are wrong there. The world's first and biggest dole bludger is religion, fomenting ignorance and stupidity and being handed free monies hand-over-fist, every second of every day, and paying no useful contribution back, beyond some meagre soup kitchen mentality for the 'deserving poor'.

And with them, you need a different spelling TERRORBUCKS, because they terrorise children and the weak into fearing their ever loving gods.

TBC, You will like this one. The Local Greek Orthodox Church around here has just been given a Government grant to 'asphalt their carpark' the carpark at the moment has a better asphalt surface than most of the local roads. This church mob regularly block off local streets for religious processions.

The Blue Cross

Good point. Can't fault you on that.

Who owns the local asphalting company? Not someone associated with the same church by any chance.... or someone in the granting authority perhaps?

TBC Some such as myself might say its a bit of pork barreling by the Labor Party trying to keep local Greek support for premier Keneally.

Nothing quite like a good bunch of conspiracy theories. Ha ha.

Aha Paul 1405, that I can fully understand. No doubt there is also a ghost ALP branch that meets in that very church?

No need for a conspiracy theory here samsung, this is standard ALP practice that I am quite sure Belly will happily confirm, since I get the feeling he gets a bit miffed with all the rorters and shysters in his beloved Party.

On this issue we are as one stevenlmeyer.

All the political parties are devoid of integrity, devoid of intelligence and devoid of allegiance to Australia. If you look at the reciprocal goods we get back for our coal, Iron ore etc, that is our nonrenewable, non value added resources, and that we get clothes, tools, other manufactured goods, and even food, all the goods we had been manufacturing in our facturies before the Mining companies took control of our political parties. Even the parties cannot control the economy, they have destroyed the economy by crawling on their bellies to get a brown face and make the rich richer and the poor poorer. That is the value of those great political leaders and treasurers. they are worth their weight in cow droppings - or maybe just not quite.

Although not (currently) a big fan of Rudd or Gillard (or Abbott either, for that matter) I have to say Rudd's strategy of inserting stimulus money at the bottom (to people who had to spend it) was far more successful than the US/Europe strategy of inserting it at the top.
Giving money to bankers was incredibly dumb. What did they do with the money? They 'shored up their position'.
IOW, they banked it.
Duh.
IMO bankers take 1,2,3 and fourth spots. Politicians and preachers are merely accessories to the crime.
As to Jimmy Carter's culpability, there has been endless finger pointing and one sided 'debate' about so called 'toxic' loans.
Why has no one asked: Why can't these millions of Americans afford something so basic as a roof over their heads?
The cruellest cut of all was when it was seriously suggested that all the people evicted from their homes should now be allowed to rent (from the banks) the very homes they 'can't afford' to own.

Grim, no major arguments with those points although I'm still not convinced that handouts were the best use of the money. On the other hand doing big infrastructure projects is not always easy either.

My point was more about the shallow politically biased finger pointing in that nomination of Abbott. There are plenty of way's we can point at politicians (many quite justifiable) but by any honest measure Abbott so far is a bit player for this topic.

My vote would probably go to Bush for the Iraq war but as I tried to point out even that decision has others playing significant roles in the lead up to it. Many of these things are the result of a series of people doing things in a certain way when different choices may have lead to a different scenario for person (or group) making that last decision.

R0bert