Economic Greed Is Destroying Our Lives
If you were asked who sits atop the business/economic pyramid, who would you nominate? If you answered shareholders you would be correct. These investors are the owners of companies and businesses. CEOs and boards do everything in their power to increase the value of their companies. Often enriching themselves in the process, of course, via stock buybacks and such like. Consumers and company employees sit well down on the hierarchical ladder of importance these days. Keeping prices high and wages low are part and parcel of increasing the value of company stock. This economic greed is destroying our lives, as it is completely out of balance.
Investors Rule The Roost In Western Democracies
The worship of the market, over all other considerations, enriches a section of our population at the expense of those who are not investors. On the nightly news, we see the unrepresentative amount of coverage given to the economic data of markets. The many more workers do not see their interests represented on the nightly news in any such regular spot. The message is clear, those at the top, the owners, are more important than anyone else. We know that governments listen to the wealthy and business much more than to consumers or workers. Big business pays for this privilege via lobbyists and donations to political parties. Democracy, as we know it, responds to special interests far more than to disorganised majorities.
Buying A Home Is Now Prohibitively Expensive
This narrow economic focus is warping our lives. To buy a house or a home in places like Australia, the USA, and the UK is now much more expensive than it used to be. In Australia, it used to be around 6 times the annual average income and this has doubled. In America, it used to be 3 times and has doubled to 6 times, over there. The home loans in the US are longer and regulated to prevent banks charging too much interest. In Australia, there are no such guardrails in place. On an average home loan downunder the lender will generate profit of around $200, 000. Is it any wonder we have some of the most profitable banks in the world. Yes, the share price of the largest lender, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, is at record rates. Mugs abound in Australia, and not just for drinking tea and coffee.
Greed & The 2 Speed Economy
This economic greed is destroying our lives. It has made some rich on paper via a 2 speed economy. The propertied class versus the ‘have nots’. Assets, like property, are appreciating like never before, whilst wages have stagnated over the last few decades. Wealth is not properly taxed in Australia. Land taxes are minimal. The capital gains tax discount makes the family home protected from a wealth tax. Negative gearing makes investing in property very attractive. Superannuation is another tax reduction bolthole for the wealthy. It is income tax which provides the lion’s share of revenue to the federal government. Rich folk employ tax accountants to set up family trusts and other schemes to minimise their tax imposts. Corporations manage to avoid paying tax in Australia at amazing levels, with a third of all companies not paying any tax at all in recent years.
“Capitalism is killing America. The overreaching sentiment of “Wall Street” and Gordon Gekko is coming to a head. Greed is no longer good — if it ever was. “
American Driven Business Trends
How long are we going to put up with these American driven trends to put shareholders above all else? The systematic favouring of one group over all other sections of our society. Economic greed is destroying our lives. The public good has been neglected in favour of private interests. Privatisation has seen public assets sold off to private companies. Billionaires have emerged as a class of individuals intent on self-aggrandisement on a massive scale. All of these things are detrimental to the health and wealth of nations and communities. The tight focus on private shit is robbing us all of the unity that real public good/common-wealth contains. All of these anti-immigration folk I see wrapping themselves in the national flag are not really great Australians, rather they are just out for themselves and whatever they can stash away privately. Their idea of Australia is a right wing, white supremacist land of entitlement for their kind.
You only have to look at Trump’s America to see where extremist right wing trends take a society. They want deregulation so they can rip off whatever is not nailed down. The thing about those on the Far Right is that they are in it for their own aggrandisement. These folk are way worse than what came before. Trump is running a murderous regime. Untrained, heavily armed and masked ICE agents killing unarmed Americans on the streets. People have compared the rise of Hitler and the Nazis to what is happening in the US. The only reason that civil war has not erupted is that the progressives and socialist Left are not gun cultures. Things can change, however, when people are pushed far enough.
The Aussie Racist Bubble
“Let’s take a peek inside the Aussie racist bubble. This is where those wrapping themselves in the national flag and marching against immigration reside. The thinking goes that if we keep out all those brown skinned people, we will not see horrendous events like the Bondi Beach mass shooting. White folk from, predominantly, Anglo stock do not commit such vile acts, according to their script. Shutting the big bad world out will protect us from the atrocities. Yes, some of our business elite sell weapons to war torn countries and our superannuation funds invest for profit in such stuff the world over, but that is beside the point. Yes, our soldiers have fought in wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East but that is not our concern, either.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
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