Unemployment seems to be a bigger part of culture in the UK. I mean, I've had plenty of friends who have been unemployed, and who have collected unemployment benefits, but people seem to make less of a deal about it. Perhaps that's because it's harder to actually collect. I've never had an opportunity to collect unemployment in Canada, but was able to get it in the UK despite never having worked there. (Hurray!)
But going "on the dole" seems to show up a lot more frequently in UK media, I mean, I've already reviewed comics about it, and the fact that it can show up in this bizarre science fiction comic really shows how the aspects of attempting to collect unemployment are part of the national consciousness.
Guts Power exists in a bizarre alternative Scotland (I think) where weird aliens/monsters with strange names (Lovelaffs1820) seem to be casually accepted into society and end up trying to get jobs along with everyone else. The main characters in this are a weird monster and their roommate, a sort of fetishy transvestite. They go to the DOLE (Department of Limited Earning) office, are forced to wait forever (despite people having figured out "that all times happen at once", which prevents people from being late), and have to go through the rigmaroles of soul crushing interviews about why they haven't found a job yet, and horrible mandated group discussion sessions.
Thankfully everything turns out all right in the end (up to a certain point) as some people are debrainwashed and various characters are allowed to go and do what they actually want to (write a novel, plot revolutionary action, etc.) instead of sitting around in offices wasting time. There are several more issues of this, and I wonder what the future has in store fore these characters.
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