Easily the most stressful and financially unstable moment in my life.
It was only two months, but I genuinely thought I'd never recover my social standing, or confidence ever again
I'm a top 10% earner in the country, paid more than my fair share of social security for many years before that.
It was a jarring experience seeing just how fine the line was between being on the right and wrong side of the system.
It’s hard to go from Hero to Zero. Now that you’ve made it, all I can say is “never forget how that experience made you feel” - that way when you vote and you pay your taxes you’ll know why you do it. Ideally so that it’s not even worse for the next guy.
The net effect is the more slowly, erosion of social safety nets and making it as painful and unpleasant as possible to use them (as a matter of policy), as well as mass corporate media propaganda against it's recipients. It's a miserable experience by-design.
I believe we aim for a dehumanising experience in New Zealand, although I am mostly unfamiliar with it. Certainly our current government wants to crack down: https://assets.nationbuilder.com/nationalparty/pages/18418/a...