'The best form of welfare is to have a job' - for whom?
So, Kevin Andrews thinks that having a job is the best form of welfare…. For whom? From where I’m standing the only people who truly benefit are the employers. Moving corporate welfare from the government (on behalf of a grateful nation remember) directly to the workers is yet another step back to the 19th century..
A mark of a civilised country is how we treat all our people. Survival of the fittest is fine when existence is hand to mouth, but we’ve moved well beyond that. We now can afford to bring the weakest and less able to defend themselves along with us and should be able to treat all with respect, not just those who have money, power or the most lethal weaponry…
This rejection of the things that define us is intrinsic to the current governments’ ideology. Australia has just abstained from a UN vote which would begin the process of a convention to protect cultural diversity around the world, which could have been used to temper some of the excesses of the WTO. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1484372.htm) 150 of the 191 member states voted for it, but it wasn’t enough. I suppose we demonstrated our independence by abstaining rather than rejecting it as the US did, but it’s a pretty sad day when our government doesn’t even think our culture is worth preserving.. In the choice between trade and the people, the people lose.
How laissez-faire capitalism got such a grip on governments is easy to see – follow the money… The biggest mystery is why people can’t see that this is not in their best interests is beyond me. How did we ever allow a section of our society (the economy is just one part of a greater whole) to get so out of control that it distorts the rest.
We are not servants of the economy – the economy is a servant of society.
For those of you who have forgotten just what laissez-faire is see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire
A mark of a civilised country is how we treat all our people. Survival of the fittest is fine when existence is hand to mouth, but we’ve moved well beyond that. We now can afford to bring the weakest and less able to defend themselves along with us and should be able to treat all with respect, not just those who have money, power or the most lethal weaponry…
This rejection of the things that define us is intrinsic to the current governments’ ideology. Australia has just abstained from a UN vote which would begin the process of a convention to protect cultural diversity around the world, which could have been used to temper some of the excesses of the WTO. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1484372.htm) 150 of the 191 member states voted for it, but it wasn’t enough. I suppose we demonstrated our independence by abstaining rather than rejecting it as the US did, but it’s a pretty sad day when our government doesn’t even think our culture is worth preserving.. In the choice between trade and the people, the people lose.
How laissez-faire capitalism got such a grip on governments is easy to see – follow the money… The biggest mystery is why people can’t see that this is not in their best interests is beyond me. How did we ever allow a section of our society (the economy is just one part of a greater whole) to get so out of control that it distorts the rest.
We are not servants of the economy – the economy is a servant of society.
For those of you who have forgotten just what laissez-faire is see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire
posted by UnAustralian at 11:03 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home