tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post4147799633322379064..comments2023-12-06T00:23:28.790+11:00Comments on Press gallery reform: News and non-NewsAndrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-49770983288133204682011-07-26T18:01:32.183+10:002011-07-26T18:01:32.183+10:00Well, I'm no Marxist (which is what they all s...Well, I'm no Marxist (which is what they all say, isn't it?), but the good Mr Tanveer is merely describing alienation of labour. <br /><br />In this age I think we've reached a sort of hyper-alienation with people being shut out of decisions not only about their labour - the lack of autonomy - but also where they can shop, where they can (afford to) live and even what they can do with their own bodies (smoking, drinking, fast food). This culture of command and control - a reason we both share a suspicion of the left - has been embraced by the post-Santamaria Liberal Party with its punitive attitude to welfare and justice and appeasement of its cousin, the downward envy amongst the comfortable middle class.<br /><br />I shall find the source, but I read an interesting thing recently which said that depression was over diagnosed and that what many people were suffering from was despair - being an entirely understandable and realistic reaction to the insurmountable problems and complete lack of agency people have over their lives.<br /><br />People suffering from this and mental illness are then stigmatised through "welfare reforms" that seek to drive them into the low-paid casualised service sector jobs the article describes that create the mental problems described in the first instance. It is a closed loop. The next phase will be hanging them out to dry - nineteen thirties style, which is well underway as any tour through an underground pathway in Sydney in winter will evidence. Why wouldn't they give up and sit with a cask of wine between their legs? No one else cares about the systematic entrenchment of their plight.<br /><br />Meanwhile, as George Monbiot has pointed out elsewhere, the very, very wealthy continue to accrue fantastic wealth on the back of rapacious policies endorsed by all major parties in the OECD. These are the same policies that cause working poverty, social displacement and anguish amongst the working poor and those not far from it.<br /><br />As the estimable Gary Trudeau pointed out in Doonesbury recently, with one percent of the United States population owning ninety percent of the wealth, ten percent is still in play, and there's a mad scramble for that.<br /><br />This is the age of corporate feudalism, and the new robber Barons have come for their pound of flesh. Reflect on that you with a mortgage as to whom your real masters are.<br /><br />But the real news is that the ASX has climbed a quarter of percent on the back of profit announcements by a company owned by less than point one of one percent of the population.<br /><br />And in the same breath they wonder why the concept of the outsider grows, and grows...Lachlan Ridgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-44814451248799609492011-07-25T21:33:34.350+10:002011-07-25T21:33:34.350+10:00Interested in your thoughts on this Lachlan: http:...Interested in your thoughts on this Lachlan: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/to-stay-in-power-labor-must-give-it-back-to-generation-vexed-20110720-1hov9.htmlAndrew Elderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-50054750698460591342011-07-25T20:15:15.082+10:002011-07-25T20:15:15.082+10:00I used Medicare to point to a significant differen...I used Medicare to point to a significant differential between Australia and, say, Chile, which with I have some experience. In a country of declining living standards for the bottom two or three income quintiles of the population, having access to health care is some comfort. Working poverty is a new normal for Australia - wasn't around when I was a kid. I think people in this group will largely vote against whoever is in power for the next three or four elections as their living situatioon certainly isn't improving, not that their condition is in any way a concern of our modern enlightened media of course. Those living in, say, Claymore may as well be living in different country to someone residing in Coogee. And for our media these nations of squalor on the fringes of our capital cities are like the past, no one from the fourth estate speaks the language.Lachlan Ridgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-66082856641196028572011-07-25T20:05:33.190+10:002011-07-25T20:05:33.190+10:00Not utopia, but a tenner a week for those of us on...Not utopia, but a tenner a week for those of us on less than $600 a week would be handy.<br /><br />But I take your point, and raise another: the household sector - especially the C-D demographic end of it - is woefully disorganised and has a pitifully small, almost nonexistent, voice in this and many other debates and thus is totrally expendable, in political terms. I do not see this situation changing in the forceable future. If ACOSS and the ACTU is all that stands between low-income earners and complete political bastadry then I suggest those of us in tight fiduciary straights may as well all bend over and drop our pants now.<br /><br />Mind you, watch the mortgagees - if they ever get their act together into some coherent and organised political voice the major parties are toast.Lachlan Ridgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-53929950265663725342011-07-20T18:42:29.346+10:002011-07-20T18:42:29.346+10:00Thank you Fiona & Marie.
Lachlan: I think you...Thank you Fiona & Marie.<br /><br />Lachlan: I think you're holding out for a solution which isn't available, and might not be if the polls hold. You seem to accept Medicare for all its faults yet you're holding out for utopia climate-wise?Andrew Elderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-6912398984176542112011-07-20T14:01:38.171+10:002011-07-20T14:01:38.171+10:00Re the impact of the compensation. I earn $500 a w...Re the impact of the compensation. I earn $500 a week and my compensation will be $8.60 per week, according tot he online calculator. The compensation is one off yet lord knows what will happen once the carbon price is thrown over to those community minded folk in the derivatives markets. And I'm supposed to think this package is a good thing?<br /><br />I realise the need to transition to a low carbon economy, but all I can see is the risk being shifted from the corporate sector to the long suffering household sector, which has borne the brunt of every "reform" since the eighties. I realise this may not stick with your politics Andrew, but this turkey is not going to vote for Christmas. Abbott is appalling, but I draw people's attention to the level of the informal vote in a string of southwest Sydney seats in the 2010 Federal election. If this is the only weapon we have left - deligitamising democracy - so be it. After all, we are coming late to the party given how the factional players and media have trashed it for the last thirty years.<br /><br />Meanwhile Australian living standards begin to look decidedly South American, especially in regional Australia. Is this because the corporate share of national income is at its highest level since records began to be kept?<br /><br />Thank god for Medicare, that's all I can say.<br /><br />But even that is dependent upon finding a, ahem, service provider*.<br /><br />Selah<br /><br />* - DoctorLachlan Ridgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-25394489118737561182011-07-20T10:00:50.303+10:002011-07-20T10:00:50.303+10:00I always enjoy your commentsI always enjoy your commentsMarienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-10356841833244665152011-07-19T21:41:42.758+10:002011-07-19T21:41:42.758+10:00Thank you for The Referral referral, Andrew. Blood...Thank you for The Referral referral, Andrew. Bloodily and brilliantly gut-wrenching.Fionanoreply@blogger.com