tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1089082204850170942.post5059168375548685176..comments2024-03-21T12:52:08.166+11:00Comments on Freedom and Flourishing: What are Australians angry about?Winton Bateshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07383561940886657594noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1089082204850170942.post-56126595549374268512012-08-14T07:18:28.361+10:002012-08-14T07:18:28.361+10:00Thanks Sheila.
Your comment got lost in the system...Thanks Sheila.<br />Your comment got lost in the system so I had to retrieve it.<br /><br />In my view the French people have a huge 'entitlement' problem - they have grossly inflated expectations of what governments are capable of doing. Government spending as a percentage of GDP in France is now higher than in Sweden - that means very high! And while the Swedes seem to be trying to contain government spending, France isn't. <br />Winton Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07383561940886657594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1089082204850170942.post-48486399550227285712012-08-14T06:54:05.983+10:002012-08-14T06:54:05.983+10:00Sheila N has left a new comment on your post "...Sheila N has left a new comment on your post "What are Australians angry about?": <br /><br />Hi Winton,<br /><br />Interesting views on Tingle's essay published here.<br /><br />Although Tingle mentions that the French Revolution took place almost simultaneously with the establishment of the first settlement in Australia, her knowledge of its impact seems negligible. She talks vaguely of human rights and accuses Australia of not being interested or involved in these because, she implies, Australian rights came almost seamlessly bestowed by the bureaucracy. She gives no examples of the Australian rights to which she alludes (unless she means the ability of freed convicts to buy land and to be paid for work), but she also seems to be unaware that these rights and many more are enshrined at law in the bulk of European polities through Napoleon's civil code and its imitations, all of which followed on from the first part of the French Revolution. Various rulers during the long period of revolution tried to convince the French people that they were pretentious and suffering from 'entitlement' and wars were fought by Britain with other royal houses and the church to stop them getting democracy, but today the French have real rights and so no upstart can accuse them of empty attitude or 'entitlement'.<br /><br />Australia has no such citizens' rights enshrined at law. Perhaps once, when we had state banks, state assets (like Telecom) and state housing and government unemployment services, and universal pension rights, we could speak of rights provided by institutions, however. As such institutions have been privatised and deregulated by Hawke, Keating and Howard, we have of course lost those implied and institutionalised rights, just as the governments have lost the power to provide them. What is left is the right to vote (for governments with no means to power) and the right to rent land for housing from the banks via extortionate mortgages (but not the ability to own it outright because population growth has inflated its cost).<br /><br />I think there is some point in being angry with the banks and the politicians who have dragged us into debt. Iceland is refusing to pay its debts and pursuing 200 bankers with criminal charges over the GFC. Every country should consider defaulting on debts to financial institutions that fed the housing bubbles. <br /><br />I could go on in some detail, but I have actually written a review of Tingle's ambitious piece which you can read and comment on here: http://candobetter.net/node/3003 <br />Winton Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07383561940886657594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1089082204850170942.post-6343525647800806212012-06-05T07:37:06.210+10:002012-06-05T07:37:06.210+10:00Hi Lorraine
1. If entitlement has become an insult...Hi Lorraine<br />1. If entitlement has become an insult we are in strange territory indeed. When those on middle and upper incomes are asked to lower their expectations of what governments can do for them, there seem to be noisy complaints that entitlements are being withdrawn. The complaints are along the lines: 'We paid our taxes, so we are entitled to receive benefits in return'. The problem is that in many countries the taxes are required to pay the interest bill on debts incurred to meet inflated expectations.<br /><br />2.There isn't much point in being angry about the invisible hand, or angry about the irresponsibility of past governments in Greece or Spain etc. Perhaps there is some point in being angry about the irresponsibility of the banks that lent them too much money, but we need to be careful that our anger with the banks doesn't lead us to shooting ourselves in the foot.<br /> <br />3. I like the way Robert Samuelson makes the point that we need to consider who should be responsible for what. It seems to me that people who are capable of looking after themselves are being irresponsible when they expect governments to accept responsibility for all aspects of their well-being.Winton Bateshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07383561940886657594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1089082204850170942.post-50561356451717045082012-06-04T23:42:16.581+10:002012-06-04T23:42:16.581+10:001. What you call entitlement is what I call expect...1. What you call entitlement is what I call expectations, particularly since this is something you identify as a disease peculiar to high-income countries. I don't like the word entitlement because it sounds like an insult. In my country relabeling safety net programs as "entitlement programs" is clearly a propaganda move, and I'm making a studied effort at not jumping on that particular bandwagon. Austerity is simply code for lowered expectations, and not just expectations for "handouts" (as right-wingers derisively call them) from government. Civil service layoffs mean more competition over private sector employment. Fewer people on assistance (all other things being equal) means even fewer consumer dollars to market to. For a while it seemed like maybe lowered expectations in the area of economic security were to be balanced out by higher expectations in overall prosperity; the old risk vs. reward canard. I'm starting to lose that belief. I don't think I'm the only one.<br /><br />2. If an angry public opinion climate corresponds with an emerging consensus that politicians are unable to control the levers of the economy, then I suggest what they are really angry at is the economy itself. The invisible hand is what's holding their heads under water.<br /><br />3. Positing a dichotomy between entitlement and responsibility is really insulting. The opposite of entitlement is humility. The opposite of responsibility is, well, irresponsibility.Lorrainehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13567383019731167967noreply@blogger.com