Millions of Australians either are using or should be using food banks. Prices are rising hideously. The theory that if you do the same job you should get the same pay is apparently too much for Australian employers. Record profits mean nothing when it comes to someone getting a few bucks more.
This grotesque situation comes about after decades of conservative handouts to businesses. Handouts to profitable energy companies, mining companies, and anyone who’d like a few more yachts. Wages spent 12 years well below the cost of living increase, but this wage proposal is somehow a crisis for the extremely rich.
There are serious existential threats to the sanctity of this affluent doll’s house. Someone might accidentally earn enough more per year for the sort of long lunch most executives seem to like on a daily basis. It’s awful, you know.
Quality of life definitely isn’t an issue in this environment. It’s even been suggested that people should “economize” with housing to save money by clustering neurotically together in overpriced homes. Would have been great during the pandemic.
This is true heresy in a country where a house, job, and family were the benchmark for so many years. Lately, though, the slum-worshipping economics have been trying to turn the world into a gigantic Air B&B, so obviously that’s OK.
What do people want more money for, anyway? They’d only spend it on food and shelter. …And ridiculous education fees, health costs, absurd multimillion-dollar prices for a bit of drywall with a roof on it, etc.
The reality is that it’s not about what something is worth that you’re paying for. It’s what you can be gouged to pay for it. Therefore Australians don’t need money at all, let alone any sort of rational theory of wages.
Australia is often called the Lucky Country, with good reason. You’d have to be lucky to put together any sort of life in this travesty of a mindset. Decades of illiterate cronyism and Thatcherism have created a world of privatized, deregulated, Haves and Never-Will-Haves.
The next two generations of Australians, Millennials and Gen Z, will probably never be able to afford anything thanks to you. Happy?
Let’s put it a little less vaguely.
You remember those business degrees you’re supposed to have? Basic business economics states that when prices go insane, people need money and credit gets tough. The sky is also blue and the grass is green, in case you were wondering.
If you’re talking incentives, you’re kidding. Many people are having to do multiple jobs to make ends not meet at all. Any theories on the reason for that? Could it be they don’t get paid enough in the first place?
Whining about wages is an admission of defeat. If you’re an employer, you should be able to calculate wage costs in less than a second. You should also be able to project costs just as easily. If you can’t manage costs on your own business plan, what the hell are you doing in business? You could sit in a tree and make chirping noises.
Some costs, like electricity, have gone up over 100% despite massive input from solar. …And nobody needs a viable wage?
Raising prices is the definitive form of lack of talent. It reduces capital inflow and excludes an increasing percentage of the market.
News Corp in the form of The Australian newspaper (paywall on the link) has predictably come out in favor of the employers. They were pro-Trump and QAnon for a while, too.
Note: The motto of The Australian is “For the informed Australian”. I’ve met the poor bloke. He’s a wreck.
Meanwhile the “financial misery index” is up 220%. Could that possibly affect business? Might it be that the food bank situation means something?
Let’s put it a bit more bluntly.
Australia doesn’t have to pay for you miserly freeloading bastards. This is a situation you created. You can go broke, too. Any questions?
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
