The lucky country?

I borrowed the title for this post from John Watson's contribution to this morning's SMH. John's article is a very timely reminder of the increasing selfishness of people who live in a country with the highest median wealth in the world. 

The size of our houses - amongst the largest per square foot in the world; the obscenely enormous and wasteful symbols of power in the Parliamentary Triangle in Canberra; 1,500 golf courses throughout the country (frequented by corporate types whose clientele pay for them to play rather than work, despite them calling their games "networking opportunities"); wastefully lavish corporate events put on by wastefully lavish corporate entities; political free-for-all spending - if you're a politician, of course, and it helps if you are in the party in power. These same wasteful corporate types cry woe when they are asked to support a struggling charity, saying their corporate charity aid is decided by head office the year in advance and there is nothing left in kitty. Yet they will financially support a political party.

Millionaires and billionaires get richer, the poor get poorer, the divide widens, and the federal government decides it's okay to cut foreign aid but it's also okay to raise politician's salaries.

And even if you are a hard worker in the middle rank or lower down the ladder, it's just tough if you happen to lose your job due to redundancy (often not legitimate anyway), internal restructure (often a nice corporate way to avoid paying redundancy) or simply because the boss decided, after years of loyal service, that you're no longer really that valuable. He doesn't care, he'll still get paid. 

One wonders how some of these people actually get any sleep at night. But John Watson nailed that, too. "It seems we can live with a world of obscene disparities, as long as we imagine our lives, careers and successes are all our own work. If others struggle, that's their fault, their own mistakes, or lack of skills or work ethic."

Our own mistakes. Apparently being made redundant is our own mistake. Apparently losing our job because the new manager didn't like us is a lack of work ethic. The corporate type can then happily return to his golf course, sup his beer or wine paid for by his company or happy new supplier, and bemoan the lack of "good" people in the world.  Except him, of course.

John Watson's article wound me up considerably, because I agree with every word of it.  Australia has become an incredibly selfish, ignorant and arrogant nation, and the current government epitomises that. Wealth is not for sharing, instead it is to be returned to the wealth generators - the people who need it the least. The environment is not for saving because the same wealth generators need it to generate more wealth. And foreign aid is non-essential, so cutting it will cause no problems. At least, not in Australia.

Don't expect anything better from this government. If you happen to be one who voted for them, maybe you'd best start praying to whatever god you worship that you never find yourself in altered circumstances, because they won't help you. They're too busy helping themselves.