“… a moral choice at least as much as an economic one”

Guest Author Uncategorized

Today’s Guest Poster is Dr Hugh Mackay, who has kindly given The Pub permission to republish the following article, first published on 14th August, 2004 by the “West Australian”. Our thanks to Dr Mackay, and also to Catalyst who sent us a copy of the article some weeks ago.

Drive for US model or Aussie fair go for all?
The Moral Maze
by Hugh Mackay

“You see a bloke driving a Rolls-Royce in America, you say, ‘I’ll have one of those one day’. But sometimes the old Australian (attitude) resents the fact that somebody else has got it. Now, I think that’s changing.”
– John Howard

In a recent interview with the Sydney morning Herald, the Prime Minister expressed warm approval for a change he believes has come over our society: he sees us as more entrepreneurial, more aspirational and “more like America”.

He has special praise for young people who he believes are more upwardly mobile than previous generations, and he plans to develop policies that will encourage us to become a nation of small-business people.

The aspiration to own a Rolls-Royce might once have been gently mocked as evidence of unbridled greed or envy. But in the new economic order, such avaricious motives have become economic virtues because they fuel the engine that drives the mass market. Materialism may not be good for the soul, but it’s good for the economy.

There’s an ethical dimension to this whole debate about aspirations, upward mobility and extravagance. If we were, indeed, to take the US as our model, we’d be looking at a fundamentally different society from the one many of us have dreamt of becoming. Do we want the sickening gap between the top and bottom of society that defines America, with an underclass of “working poor” apparently institutionalised beyond redemption?

Success is one thing; elbowing each other out of the way in our struggle to reach the top of the heap is another. And the economic heap in Australia has become very tall indeed: never before in our history has the distance from top to bottom been as great as it is now. No one would deny the value of enterprise and ambition. But the idea of a grasping, acquisitive society is at odds with the long-standing Australian ideal of an egalitarian society committed to equity, fairness and special consideration for those who are marginalised or disadvantaged by disability, poverty, incompetence, lack of intelligence or sheer bad luck.

That doesn’t mean a society in which everyone has the same amount of money or the same economic status. But every society must make a moral choice: will we encourage untrammelled greed and economic survival of the fittest or will we accept, via the tax and welfare systems, serious responsibility for the wellbeing of those who will never make it on their own, let alone become “entrepreneurial”, no matter how hard they try?

There’s another society the PM didn’t mention – Denmark – that has adopted a radically different approach from America’s when it comes to the distribution of wealth. The Danes don’t just choose nice princesses; they also choose egalitarianism.

Newsweek reported recently that 38 per cent of Denmark’s total income goes to the middle 40 per cent of the population, and the richest 20 per cent of Danes have only 2.9 times more disposable income than the poorest 20 per cent. In Australia, by contrast, the richest 20 per cent of households have 14 times the income of the poorest 20 per cent.

The highly-taxed Danes devote almost one-third of their GDP to “social transfers” that subsidise things like health and education for low-income families.

This redistribution of wealth has created something close to a nation of middle-income people; it has also created a remarkable degree of social stability.

We don’t have to emulate Denmark, but neither do we have to emulate the US. What we must do, sooner or later, is decide whether we want an egalitarian, broadly middle-class society or not.

And because that’s a decision affecting the wellbeing of millions of Australians, it’s a moral choice at least as much as an economic one.

492 thoughts on ““… a moral choice at least as much as an economic one””

  1. kambah mick
    can you help the family access gumtree or facebook, there are recycle/swap/give away pages on facebook.

  2. This little black duck
    Why doesn’t Morrison just dust off the white Australia policy and be done with it?

  3. On the World Cup, the SBS did an interview with a couple of 10(?)-year olds from the favelas who had no show of going to any of the matches. As a result, someone has got them tickets to the Maracanã – the FINAL!

  6. Bp stations always seem to sell petrol at above-average prices. A good poke in the eye with a burnt stick:

    The intellectual property watchdog, IP Australia, found BP was unable to show “convincing evidence” that it was indelibly linked in the average petrol consumer’s mind to the dark green shade known as Pantone 348C, a spokeswoman for the government agency said.

    BP first tried to register a trademark for the colour in 1991, and until 2013 fought legal battles against another corporate titan, Woolworths, to stake its claim to the colour as the dominant shade for its service stations.

  15. From Tales of Old Dartmoor

    Someone:
    How do you repel boarders?

    Bloodnok:
    Stop changing the bed linen.

  20. Ducky,

    Nup.

    And I will bet
    A silk pajama
    There isn’t any
    Three-l lllama.

    J’adore Ogden Nash.

    Moi can still recite Custard the Dragon perfickly.

  21. Fiona,

    We just bought The Darling Buds of May!

    So you got JWH’s fridge magnet half right. I never received one. Must be quite a collector’s item by now. I seem to remember JGPM was wholesaling the mousepads and the magnets.

  22. Ducky,

    I returned ours to Mr Howard, just as I return all Mr Frydenberg’s mail.

    Oooooh, maybe that’s why they want to sell Australia Post …. drumroll …. socialise those losses …

  29. The UN gives our miserable, sodding government a good kicking.

    Commission slams transfer at sea as clear rights breach

    The United Nations has expressed ”profound concern” over reports that Australia was poised to hand Sri Lankan asylum seekers back to the country’s navy on Thursday after only the briefest refugee assessment.

    For the first time, the Sri Lankan government confirmed that failed asylum seekers would be switched straight onto its navy ships at sea, even as the Australian government dug in on its hardline refusal to provide any information.

    Fairfax Media confirmed that refugee assessments of the more than 200 Sri Lankans trying to reach Australia on two separate boats have been cut back to four questions, prompting dire warnings by international law experts that Australia risked breaching international obligations.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/commission-slams-transfer-at-sea-as-clear-rights-breach-20140703-3bbi1.html

  31. Never heard of it. I plead foreigner

    THE TALE OF CUSTARD THE DRAGON

    By Ogden Nash

    Copyright Linell Nash Smith and Isabel Nash Eberstadt

    Belinda lived in a little white house,
    With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,
    And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,
    And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.
    Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink,
    And the little gray mouse, she called her Blink,
    And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard,
    But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard.
    Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,
    And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,
    Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,
    And realio, trulio, daggers on his toes.
    Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,
    And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,
    Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,
    But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.
    Belinda tickled him, she tickled him unmerciful,
    Ink, Blink and Mustard, they rudely called him Percival,
    They all sat laughing in the little red wagon
    At the realio, trulio, cowardly dragon.
    Belinda giggled till she shook the house,
    And Blink said Week!, which is giggling for a mouse,
    Ink and Mustard rudely asked his age,
    When Custard cried for a nice safe cage.
    Suddenly, suddenly they heard a nasty sound,
    And Mustard growled, and they all looked around.
    Meowch! cried Ink, and Ooh! cried Belinda,
    For there was a pirate, climbing in the winda.
    Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right,
    And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright,
    His beard was black, one leg was wood;
    It was clear that the pirate meant no good.
    Belinda paled, and she cried, Help! Help!
    But Mustard fled with a terrified yelp,
    Ink trickled down to the bottom of the household,
    And little mouse Blink strategically mouseholed.
    But up jumped Custard, snorting like an engine,
    Clashed his tail like irons in a dungeon,
    With a clatter and a clank and a jangling squirm
    He went at the pirate like a robin at a worm.
    The pirate gaped at Belinda’s dragon,
    And gulped some grog from his pocket flagon,
    He fired two bullets but they didn’t hit,
    And Custard gobbled him, every bit.
    Belinda embraced him, Mustard licked him,
    No one mourned for his pirate victim
    Ink and Blink in glee did gyrate
    Around the dragon that ate the pyrate.
    Belinda still lives in her little white house,
    With her little black kitten and her little gray mouse,
    And her little yellow dog and her little red wagon,
    And her realio, trulio, little pet dragon.
    Belinda is as brave as a barrel full of bears,
    And Ink and Blink chase lions down the stairs,
    Mustard is as brave as a tiger in a rage,
    But Custard keeps crying for a nice safe cage.
    1936

  32. leonetwo

    The UN gives our miserable, sodding government a good kicking.

    Just wait until Helen Clark gets the UN boss cocky gig. ! Oi Oi Oi.

  33. Leone,

    Belinda lived in a little white house
    With a little black kitten and a little gray [American spelling] mouse,
    And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon [as opposed to waggon],
    And a realio trulio little pet dragon …

    Yes, I could continue.

    Just as I can recite all of Jabberwocky, You are old, Father William, The Owl and the Pussycat and numerous Shakespeare sonnets and assorted odes and poems of the Romantics.

    To make matters worse, when I was in Year 5 (aka 5th Class), our teacher – whom I loathed then, but now feel very sorry for – decided it would be a good idea to make us learn Hiawatha.

    Each week she would set us a chunk; at a specified English lesson each week we would all stand up and recite that chunk, each girl sitting down as she forgot the words.

    My very best friend and I thought this a bit tedious, and decided to take our own steps.

    So, one week – once we had been given the bit to be memorised, we spent every available moment not just learning those lines (easily mastered) but then all the rest!

    The next week, when the performance lesson arrived (I think it was first class on Tuesday, with double maths to follow), we stood up with the rest of the class. One by one, our comrades fell.

    We kept going.

    And kept on.

    And kept on keeping on.

    All through double maths.

    Of course, our poor (and in retrospect somewhat stupid) teacher couldn’t do a thing about us – she’d have lost face.

    Eventually the bell for 11:00am recess rang, and we were all liberated.

    Thereafter, the Hiawatha project was abandoned.

    To this day, I can only remember a few phrases.

  34. Ducky,

    It is a seriously gorgeous poem, and you and CTar should teach it to your respective grands and greats.

  35. kk,

    I know quite a bit about sampling and statistics.

    The methodology employed (?) seems a tad deficient.

    I can, however, vouch for the efficacy of sex after exercise.

    No correspondence will be entered into in re.

  37. Fiona,

    My mother forced unto me learning bits of Shakespeare in my lesser teens.

    I went through tears learning Portia’s speech.

    I still wonder at the ability to remember theatrical parts, never mind the ability to act.

    One of the lesser mortals, sadly.

  38. Leone,

    … dire warnings by international law experts that Australia risked breaching international obligations

    Risked? RISKED? RISKED?????

    1. Piracy on the high seas.
    2. Complete and utter breach of the UN Refugee Convention.
    3. First dibs at pariah nation status for Australia.

    Well played, Scrotumführer and Blood Oaf.

  39. Ducky,

    Tears at the process or at the content?

    If the former, I sympathise – parents, as you and I well know, do things – as they think – for their children’s good.

    If the latter, I empathise – it is a deeply moving argument.

    I would also argue (having had The Merchant of Venice as our Shakespearean play to be studied in 3rd Form) that Shakespeare was NOT an anti-Semite.

    Au contraire.

  40. I found The Rime of The Ancient Mariner one of the best bits of pottery.

    Must be that iambic tetrameter is “nice”.

    My real fave is Gray’s Elegy: it combines words, sononance and image perfickly.

  41. Fiona,

    It was partly “you must” and fear of the magnitude.

  44. Mum did have it right, though: being able to commit stuff to memory is important.

    She didn’t get right, though, why it IS important. It is not enough to be nimble on your feet

    It’s important because, in pleading your cause, you have to point to, and CITE, the words to which you have been an auditor. That you also have to explain, clearly and believably, is also what you have seen.

    In any sort of forum, these are circumstantial evidence. In a court of law, these abilities are paramount. A curse on those who falsify their testimony and they are totally condemned.
    Foremost among those are the politicians who are abusing our democracy!

  45. I wouldn’t trust Jeff Seeney as far as I could dribble on him.

  47. While I’m venting: commentary on sport.

    I may watch sport on TV. If I do then I know something about that particular sport.

    I have no need to tell me what is happening or what has just happened. Some information about the current attitudes of and options to the players may be of interest. I really can see and interpret what is happening without “assistance”.

    There is no way in the world that anyone happening on, say, the current Wimbledon match is about to convert to the particular network that is showing it.

    As far as I’m concerned, they can all shut up. Funny how the mute is the default.

  48. Just a quick update…

    Today HR involved in my wife’s case scored one of the most monumental own-goals I have ever witnessed.

    We’ve got them, hook, line, sinker, fishing rod, the life jackets and the tinny… all disappeared right up their fundaments.

    Love to tell youse more, but this is too precious to brag about.

  49. This particular woman’s match is between two who think advancing past the baseline is an act of desperation.

    I’m minded of:

    There was a young man from Australia
    who painted his arse like a dahlia
    red, yellow and white,
    the colours were right
    but the smell was a bit of a failure

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