Once women joined the workforce it all went downhill from there. It’s no one’s fault. Certainly not the women’s fault. Just a bug in the system. But the system needs changing.
Somewhere it all went horribly wrong.
Back in the 50s, you walked into a job (a job for life by the way!). You got married, the woman became a full-time mum, and on Dad’s salary, young couples could pretty easily put together a deposit and buy straight into their first home.
The was no such thing as a ‘rental trap’.
But things started to slide from there.
Steadily more and more women joined the work-force, with a rush coming in the late 60s and early 70s. Household incomes expanded. By the 80s, women who chose to stay at home were finding that they needed to supplement the household income in some way.
By the 90s, many women felt they no longer had a choice. To support the lifestyle the family wanted, mum needed to work full-time. The kids went into childcare.
And in the new millennium, both mum and dad are working hard. Long hours and long commutes. The kids are in day care – sometimes immediately. But school places are hard to come by, so you’ve got to lock in to the waiting list early, or pay super high-fees.
Life in one of the richest nations on earth.
If you leave the technological advance out of it, it’s hard to make the argument that we’re progressing as a society. And even if you do include it.
I mean, imagine going back to the 50s and offering people a bargain. Over the next 60 years, you’re all going to work harder and longer with more stress and less job and income security. You’re going to see your kids less and your boss more. You’re going to spend more time in traffic.
In return for these sacrifices, I present to you the iPhone 6!
Have we just been taken for a ride?
Where did it all go wrong?
Now it might be tempting to say it’s part of some evil-genius conspiracy. But evil is generally more banal than that.
And the force at play here is the basic engine of modern economics – supply and demand.
Because as household incomes grew, they were able to buy more things. They demanded more things. They demanded better things. Demand grew.
But the supply of many things is fixed. Think land and property. Everyone wants a water front property, but there’s only so many to go around.
And so the price rose.
And so if you were the first household to send mumma out to work, you doubled your income and you could buy a lot more things. You had an edge over everyone else. But if everyone doubles their income, you’re right back where you started, on par with everyone else.
Only now, you’re stuck. Because the price level has risen to reflect everyone having two incomes. And if mumma wants to come home, she can’t. Now you need that second income just to keep pace with everyone else.
It’s the dynamic of an arms race, and in an arms race there are no winners.
And think about the implications of pushing back the retirement age. Sounds sensible. Old people need money for things.
But what happens when all the old people are working? And old people tend to be close to peak-earning, so what happens if all the higher-income earners in society start working longer?
You know what happens. It’s just another leg in the arms race. It just makes it harder for everyone to keep pace.
(I do think it’s good to try and shift the burden off the public pension, but I’m talking about something else.)
And so this is the cruel reality of the competitive world we live in. Any innovation that increases our productivity or earning power just opens the way for new forms of work.
Automatic washing machines? – now mum can go to work in the factory.
Mum supplements the family income? – Now the family depends on that income.
Paperless offices and emails? – Just send me some thoughts on the proposal when you get home tonight.
So what’s the solution? Obviously we need women back in the kitchen where they belong. Breasts make you biologically inclined to doing dishes and vacuuming.
No. Of course not.
I’m hopeful that there is some way that we can keep the benefits of the 20th Century – greater scope to define our own journeys regardless of race, gender or footy affiliation.
But I want to do that without locking everyone into a consumerist arms race.
And so what’s the solution? Well, if it took a cultural revolution to get us here, it will probably take a cultural revolution to get us out.
That’s how the arms race between the US and the USSR was brought to an end. A spirit of cooperation and mutual disarmament.
But there were only two players in that arms race. How do you get 7 billion people to play a long?
It’s not easy.
And I think maybe capitalism just isn’t up for the job. This competitive dynamic is the engine of growth in capitalism. It’s hard to imagine a version without it.
And I’m certainly not advocating communism. But I think we’re looking for a new way of doing things. We’re overdue for an economic revolution.
The old system just isn’t working.
What are your suggestions for an economic revolution?
Or…
Are you happy with how things are travelling?
Docsmithy says
WELL … Blow me down!!
At last! Someone else has finally realized women in the workforce blew it all apart for everyone, including themselves … because they pushed the economy and prices.
So Now they HAVE to work just to get a family by!
I wrote sa book on this way back in 92 = “Australia Imploded!”
Good luck with it.
They also paved the way politically for gays – now we have Gaydom! ruling effectively.
They have further taken all the jobs and ruined things
judy says
Wow John, a lot of your readers can’t actually read & understand, only react & obviously don’t know how to laugh. Yes, of course we mucked it all up, we get blamed for everything thing else, especially mothers. Great read, Loved it.
Jonnyacidseed says
Nice work Judy……. 😉
Now get off the computer and back into the kitchen where you belong…..
Docsmithy says
Bit late to wake up on these things now.
Folks should have taken far more notice and interest nearly 25 yrs back when i was desperately highlighting all these things. Even as far back as 86-87, I was fighting with idiot lecturers and academics on the faults of the nonsense they were espousing.
If folks had reversed things way back in 90, when I was making some noise about all this, they might have had a chance!
But now they’ve locked in the gays, and we’re all in trouble!
Only GOD can save it from here, but He won’t do so unless enough approach Him and try to make some amends for Boo-boos
Debbe says
What a bigot and a pig!!! Quick someone – the bacon’s on the loose – shoot it before it gets out the gate!
Jonnyacidseed says
Debbe, obviously not smart enough for this discussion….who let you out of the laundry/kitchen?
Lady says
Women had to join the workforce during the Second World War. They did jobs normally the province of men. The men who actually returned from the war wanted their jobs back on returning home and many women were forced to either leave work or take an inferior position on less salary.
Greed became the ideology.
The women, who previously had accepted their lot of staying home after
they married and had children, wished, for a variety of reasons, to return to
the work force. So the economy geared up to accommodate this. Emancipation of
women had arrived. Over the years they wanted equal pay for equal work. Again the
economy accommodated.
The pill arrived giving freedom, so called, to women to arrange to have their children at a time to suit their other lives. This was a two edged sword as in many ways it freed men to have sexual freedom without domestic commitment.
Help in the home with domesticity declined. The days of giving a home, food, clothing and
companionship with constancy of work to those less able to fend for themselves became
the exception rather than the rule. As the big houses were attacked by governments and greed, their role in the community declined and many people previously employed in running of the big
houses were not employed and became welfare recipients. This lead to the increased taxation and
increased number of government employees to administer this effort to support people unable or unwilling to find gainful work. So pay these increased taxes required women to contribute. In other words the cycle continues. We cannot put the clock back and I do not see a solution. Pandora opened the box which no one was able to close.
Paul Miles says
Well, Docsmithy, if you are being serious and not just throwing mischievous troll cats amongst pigeons, I’m sure I, along with most of the population, would not be surprised no-one’s been listening to you for 25 years!
Docsmithy says
Just couldn’t handle truth – that’s all.
A psychologist was asked many yrs ago what the greatest problem facing man was – just prior the Fems [in 1968] … His answer was man’s inability to face the truth. Btw, I didn’t hang on it for 25 yrs: I gave up on a non-listening party after about 8 yrs, banging a head against a wall, I did my part.
he non-listeners can face their own music now.
I now write for young winners – or those who want to be winners.
I used to consistently clean up multiple opponents simultaneously when I was young: now i just clean up all the 20 and 30 yr olds singly in various sports and other games; so I think I have a pretty good handle on truth
Docsmithy says
Perhaps you might be more interested in my new and upcoming book, “Winning”, but it has little to do with economics and politics. It strikes at a more personal level. Expected release August 2015, through Xlibris; written: DH Towers
Macca says
Long occurred to me that women have in fact been sold a huge turkey. My wife has to be a semi full time mother and manage a manic career all at once. I am a fully modern guy and do all I can but she is still under huge time and stress pressures. But without her income we couldn’t have all those absolutely critical things we simply must have, like yeah, the iPhones, the 64 inch plasma, two nice cars, a washing machine that looks like a super computer, and all the rest of it. For blokes, I reckon we’re laughing. I get t enjoy all the luxury and the gismos without the pressure of being the sole breadwinner. Fine by me, but probably not what Germaine and the girls had in mind.
Jen says
Give the power back to the people I say. Welcome innovation, it usually comes from the need for change and not just the wealthy. Let those that want to work be given the incentive to strive again. Let those who don’t want to work or disadvantaged be educated into something THEY want to do, and have a new skill that they can contribute and those who just don’t want to work put to voluntary projects such as reafforestation, which still contributes. Any we support those who can’t work at all. Even some of those who want to work! Surely in this day and age they can do some meaningful things. Let the individual and the hard-workers like our farmers and small business have the chance to turn the country back around. Its the people who do it not the machines, not the government. US we can do it. Big business has taken the funds off shore and all the little businesses who employed the people have been and are slowly being gobbled up by them. There is no competition when they are that big and the little guys either go bankrupt or disappear as they can’t compete or they have to work for the miniscule rates they offer. Government policy and cutting of rural services etc. ensured the farmers didn’t have a say. Farmers made the country viable in the past but the government didn’t like that they were not in control. So the farms under government policy became less viable as the towns moved to the cities, services to the rural sector were cut and the farms sold up,sometimes ( the best to overseas interests).. The kids were forced to go to town to get a job where as previously they worked on the farm, not in front of the television. The government could have more control over them there in the city. We need to get over the fact we need so much control. .
We need to support innovation, determination and people who want to work hard to make a difference. We have a history of courage and determination, lets get it happening and stand up and fight.back. I say we need to give the power back to the people, encourage the individual.who should we ask, ” What is it you want to do or change?” would tell you…….. Not the masses as they all go along with what the group wants. We have lost our backbone.
Sowrabh Behl says
OH MY GOD! I’ve been saying this for years. THANK YOU JON.
Not only that , but our kids are losing their health because nobody can feed them properly.
Nobody knows how to cook because this was deemed as ‘house duties’ and women saw this as ‘oppressive’.
Kids are expected to learn all their life skills from school (pft. like that ever works..)
I’m not trying to be sexist. I’m I think at least one parent needs to stay at home, man or woman. But we’ve designed a stupid society that even the basics of buying a house now require two incomes slaving away at a job. We pay for it in terms of our health, our kids health, our peace of mind and our livelihood.
What stupid society is this?
Ann Ominous says
A very thought provoking post Jon, I think you captured the catalyst of it all when you mentioned the washing machine. Machine sophistication is really what is happening here.The next phase is of course robotics, as robots develop more and more abilities, the working population will struggle to compete, whether you are male or female will be of little consequence. You are quite correct, our present economic system cannot cope with what is unfolding. One possible solution is that proposed at Positive Money dot org but how will we get the powers that be to surrender control? We are certainly in a mess, is it of our own making or have we been duped?
You’ve heard it before, I’m sure. Here is a quote from Norm Franz: “Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants but debt is the money of slaves.”
Pippi says
What a Totally Sexist Attitude & Dogmatic Ideology. Seriously its so easy & shallow to blame Women for all the faults which exist in our Society, & the SKY rocketing Property prices. Maybe it should be remembered that men have been the major Policy makers in our western Society for thousands of years,they also control nearly all the major companies which in turn control all of us.If women had been allowed to be in positions of power years ago, our current unrealistic system would be completely different,As Jerry Hall Says ” All men want the Same thing :
1 A Chef in the Kitchen
2 A Maid in the Lounge room
3 A Whore in the Bedroom
Happy Queens Birthday!!!!!
Jonny says
Pippi, you are missing the whole point….Instead of getting all tied up in the “sexist” knot, read the article for what it is! He says: “Once women joined the workforce it all went downhill from there.
It’s no one’s fault. Certainly not the women’s fault. Just a bug in the
system. But the system needs changing.” Jon is hardly blaming woman for working….he is saying that the more we earn, the higher the cost of living. We spend what we earn and prices reflect that. Now get off the computer and back in the kitchen where you belong! 😉
MTP says
And Jonny, you too get off the computer and back down into the mines doing a 12-14 hr day in dust and damp, or work the land from sun up till sunrise with basic tools….oh and have a life expectancy of 40….
We all should benefit from a progressive society, not just men. 😉
MTP says
Lol – sunset !
Peter says
I’ve got no idea how ‘gays’ got into that rant???? The human race is so obsessed with consumerism being how you ‘win’ the game and at the same time keep the economy growing. Us humans show that we’re a winner by having more stuff and producing that stuff keeps people in jobs, that makes sense doesn’t it??? Surely economists realise there’s a limit to how many marbles you can fit into one bag. Unfortunately I think that the only way things will change is when (probably fairly soon) there aren’t enough jobs for even one partner to work. Less disposable income will mean people have to buy less so more businesses will fail so there will be even less jobs. Oversupply of workers will mean wages will drop and things will spiral downwards or at least in terms of how we perceive a good life should be lived. Mad Max II might not be far from our future reality. Unless the ENTIRE WORLD decides that technological advancements that do nothing other than make our lives physically or mentally ‘easier’ (in my opinion the biggest contributor to our current dilemma) should be outlawed or taxed at a very, very high rate and that raping and pillaging the earth in order to keep fuelling this unwinnable game should also be outlawed or taxed at a very, very high rate, it will end badly. A simple life, growing our own food and using renewable energy for basic needs is all we really need but the human need to ‘win’ won’t allow some of us to be content with that. There are more and more lobby groups trying to convince us to look after the planet and live a sustainable lifestyle. My hope is that these group will grow fast enough to have an impact on mainstream thought processes and bring realism rather than consumerism back into vogue. We don’t have to all live in a commune but we don’t all need a garage full of toys that we use once maybe once a year or maybe just once. Hold on for the ride of your life folks because one way or the other whatever’s going to happen will have to happen soon.
DC says
My wife goes to work to pay for a car & the running of it, If she did not work we would not need that car ! But the government is happy with all those taxes it creates.
MTP says
DC – your wife does not go to work to pay for a car and its running costs. She earns money from her work that contributes to the overall pool of money for the running of your household. Its your choice to be narrow minded and allocate it to these specific expenses. If she sees it that way too then I feel sorry for her that her efforts are not truly appreciated equally as yours.
DC says
I wish she would contribute to the running of the household, when I suggest that she could pay for something , she says ” but you normally pay for that ….why should I have to now” . As for the pool of money forget it.
Madonna Winterbottom says
“PAY MEN DOUBLE”
They have to be married and have anew born to get this.
Ask a new mother ” would you like to stay home and care for your babies
Ask a new father “would like to be able to support and protect your wife and your new born baby
The answer is simple- not rocket science
Women born with breasts to feed their young
Unfortunately people Men can’t have babies yet
Men are with muscles to protect and fight – nature has provided us with everything – but for some ridiculous reason we just can’t leave it alone!!
Women – lets NUTURE and card for our children- not stick them in daycare for the institution to look after !!
Men- lets care and protect ours wives and children
MTP says
Oh Madonna – what are you saying? I prefer to move forward not backwards and embrace the choices that technology can give us but have to respect your right to choose as well, but struggle with your ideology.
BTW what an interesting dichotomy you have with your name. (Respectfully said).
Madonna Winterbottom says
oh MTP – what has technology got to do with it? I have surveyed many expecting mothers, and new mothers regarding this issue. Ask them yourself. Are you a new mother that doesn’t want to go back to work straight away, and has to hand over her most treasured love to someone else to raise?
If this was implemented- at least then women would have a choice to go back to work straight away or stay with their babies.
Imagine if women stayed home after child birth – how many jobs would become available
We need more young Australians coming through-population growth, not aging population
We need the family unit back-not Dad AND MUM slogging their guts out-then coming home to house work – homework-trying to fit in the smallest of time, a mountain of work as well as try to care and listen and share with your kids too!! No wonder the marriage statistics have gained 10 years. People are putting off getting married now, to try to save more money for the great Australian dream, which is getting further and further away for them.
Equality…… that’s not equality… that’s just blatant bullshit our government has fed them!! I cant believe that women have fallen for it! We are better than this, and so are our Men
MTP says
Technology has got everything to do with it. Advances in society have allowed a greater level of gender equality and opportunity. Think about it.
Docsmithy says
Wrong!
Tech just means you’ve introduced a new industry with future jobs everwhere.
Jobs were lost when Fems drove women to work socially.
Now the kids leaving school complain they can’t get jobs – and some homes have no jobs!
Wasn’t like that in the 50’s.
When I hit work late 60’s, jobs went down like flies for teens… easy to get
MTP says
“So what’s the solution? Obviously we need women back in the kitchen where they belong. Breasts make you biologically inclined to doing dishes and vacuuming.”
REALLY JON!
I guess that you don’t really believe that, but is this sort of comment really necessary any more, even if said in jest?! Do you know how many guys who are either full time or part time stay at home parents you have just insulted with this comment!? In this age of equality it’s time to acknowledge that men are just as capable as women in looking after children (very young babies perhaps an exception), caring for parents, organising a home and all it entails AND THEY DONT HAVE TO HAVE BREASTS TO DO THAT. GET IT JON! Show some respect!
Jon Giaan says
That was the point i was trying to make – that it’s ridiculous to link anatomy with life roles. I was trying to take the piss out of an idea that I still see bandied about.
The key question is how do we keep the advances of the 20th C, where gender places less limits on your freedom, without locking everyone into the rat race. It about the systems we have. Not our values.
MTP says
So you want to take the piss out of an idea that is bandied about by……errrr….bandying it about ??
Better not mention it at all, that’s the only way to stop it.
Docsmithy says
No need to defend yourself John.
It’s about time someone other than myself explained these things – which I did via book 8 yrs after i had been doing so verbally.
You’ll be unpopular mate … but Hey … Are you a millionaire or not??
U should know from much experience that life at the top is lonely
… AND it takes courage to speak truth
Andrew McQueen says
I agree the DINKs have had a large impact in causing house prices to rise and therefore affordability, but that is not the entire picture. I believe it comes down to two things that keep the prices soaring ever higher: greed and scarcity. Greed in that the homeowners expect a generous return on their original purchase when their home is sold, and scarcity of new land/property releases to keep pushing up that demand and therefore support said higher purchase prices.
Also greed in the sense of what we expect as home buyers has changed. We want more and expect more from a house than previous generations, we want all the comforts and mod cons and a few extra bedrooms just in case. Ask our parents about this and they’ll say they never started out in such a luxuriois home as we typically enjoy. And so of course the entry price for these homes is going to be higher. We all want something nice and shiny and new rather than settling for the delapidated run down place.
Now in a way I don’t blame the home owner for wanting a profit on their sale, after all the costs of selling a property and buying another is pretty high and one would reasonably expect to get fair value for their property so they are able to purchase another property in the current market which if it is higher than when they bought in they also expect their property to to rise in similar terms so that they have the capital on sale of their current property to buy a new one. This is a self fulfilling prophecy of course because as the market rises, the seller joins the market rise and also increased their house price, and thus creating a never ending spiral of house price increases.
Add on top of this the cultural norm that has crept into the Australian Psyche that everyone should be able to own a home. We almost dont want to settle for renting if we can help it. That’s all well and good, but the problem with this all is that it pushes prices ever higher because it squeezes supply while demanding a high quality home in the process. This is not a global phenomenon, in other counties a high rental rate is quite acceptable, not frowned on.
So can we change this culture easily? Probably not. But I have thought of a solution, which I think will work. As we know the market and therefore prices are purely driven by what the market will bare, so the solution is to stop agreeing as buyers to pay such outrageous prices! We need to stop going along to auctions and saying, sure, I’ll pay $1 million dollars for a crappy 2 bedroom place in Sydney. If everyone outright rejected the high prices and refused to pay, prices would fall. Banks can also regulate this by how much they are allowing to lend to customers, which is another big factor that has allowed for the increase in what people can ‘afford’ and therefore what they’re willing to pay.
In addition to this as of course you gave mentioned many times before we need to increase the supply side and stop being so greedy with using that as a tool to give maximum profit to developers and the government (and to existing home buyers).
Lastly we need to reduce the amount of foreign buyers in the market, at least temporarily. The problem of course with foreign buyers is they see the $1 million dollar property as a good deal and so are willing to pay and the cycle perpetuates.
Now the only problem remaining is how to make all this happen on a country winds scale. Unless everyone joins the revolution, unfortunately it is very likely to fail.
Jon Giaan says
The answer to this weeks question, “Did women ruin the economy?” is…
“No. Of course not.”
Congratulations to everyone who got the right answer. Contact Knowledge Source to claim your prize.
MTP says
Geez Jon, even when your backpeddling you still manage to sink in a subconscious boot in…
Antichrist says
Its great Jon..youve managed to get a bite off rabid feminists who didnt bother to read your points but jumped at your title..and Ive been steered to god and to hate the gays whom clearly have the underlying control over this situation by some god fearing author. ” I cant wait for that book to be published”… He he.
Change comes one step at a time. We sadly cannot expect others to change, but we can manifest this ourselves, and in our lives. Have your own economic revolution.
The wonderful beauty of this, is you get to reap the rewards whilst the other numbys plod on irregardless towards their modern day slavery and early stress related deaths.
Reduce your expectations. Reduce consumption. . Just do away with these societal norms based upon competition and consumption. Pity those fools driving the new cars and with the Mcmansions. and slave collars. They are but classic examples of the cancerous myths that underpin modern day society. Simplify. Be happy . Educate. Emancipate yourselves and your family from the cycle of depravity that the hordes espouse to.
The answer is simple. The answer is easily accessible if one really wants it. The answer is within. The trouble is we are all tooo brainwashed to accept that.
and oh..emancipate yourself from this hatred based religico dogmas at the same time too will you please…
Icarus32Soar says
You are obviously a rabid masculinist!
Paul Miles says
Jon, I think you are increasingly showing yourself as
something of a philosopher who thinks quite deeply about the issues facing
society.
But I’m not sure you can put the major catalyst for negative
changes in our quality of life that we have experienced and are still to
experience down to changes in technology and (even tongue-in-cheek) to women joining the workforce. There have of course been women entering the workforce in large numbers from World War I on. And, of course, some will (and have) misinterpreted your mostly
jocular observation as a criticism of women working, something I am sure it wasn’t
meant to be.
But I also think the changes you mentioned are due to a
combination of factors, many more profound than women permanently entering the
workforce. Some of them are tied to technological advances, but not necessarily.
Among them are the late 20th Century growth of advertising and consumer
expectations, inflation, the dominance of one or another political ideologies, the
growth of the influence of lobbyists of all kinds, especially corporate… and
so on.
And above all greed.
I think the “Greed is good” 80s started the real
damage. This is when consumerism really replaced organised religion as a moral
yardstick (not that organised religion was doing a great job at that time or
since). It was the start of the neo-liberal religions of Reaganism and Thatcherism.
And at the end of that decade, communism collapsed. The great enemy was gone, and
for a while the world looked so bright with possibility.
But gone was also the last brake on excess. And then
Japanese management practices were taken on enthusiastically by American
“efficiency experts”. They conveniently overlooked the shameless
exploitation and overworking of Japanese employees, sometimes to the point of
suicide. It became the ideal business model. So efficiency drives and mergers
and downsizing led to mass sackings and the loss of whole industries, putting
whole swathes of people in fear of losing their jobs and throwing whole
communities, even states, into increasing poverty. (With great input, of course, from advancing technology.) And with globalisation, deregulation, “the market knows best” and trickle-down ideology reigning everywhere, governments largely stopped trying to control the way their economies and societies were
going. Two decades later this completely unfettered attitude culminated in the
GFC. The lessons of which, of course, the governments and corporations have
managed to almost completely ignore, happily all continuing on with ‘business
as usual’.
That is until the next coming, really huge crisis.
We often hear the admonition that we are heading for a fall,
like Ancient Rome. The people who warn of this are usually religious
conservatives who cite moral and sexual decadence as the cause of the rot. But
in fact, the average Ancient Roman had few of the hang-ups about natural
sexuality that would haunt us once Christians hijacked the issue. And if anyone
was engaging in real debauchery, it was the ultra-rich and over-privileged
aristocracy. But that was mainly in the later time of the Emperors.
In fact, there was a period in the late Republic which far
more closely parallels what we are experiencing now. After the final fall of Carthage,
Rome’s armies were victorious everywhere and untold wealth was pouring in. But
it was the aristocracy who were pocketing it all, whooping it up mightily, while
conditions for the average Roman, including those veterans who had been doing
the actual fighting for these parasites, were going continually downhill. On
top of that, the greed of the aristocrats was feeding on itself to such an
extent that they were actually using shady and sometime illegal practices to
take and even steal even more wealth and land from the lower classes that still
had some. Over the next century, Ancient Rome was increasingly owned by these aristocrats
who were often little more than gangsters, and Rome grew increasingly into a
violent and lawless Gotham City. Only the advent of the emperors brought some stability
back, and only through a series of bloody civil wars.
Somewhat closer to our time, France of the 18th Century was
also a society in decline, financially and politically dominated by a royalty
and nobility that shamelessly and ruthlessly exploited its common people,
completely uncaring of its welfare. Poor Marie Antoinette never actually
uttered the words, “Let them eat cake”, but she sure paid for that
reputation a bit later. We all know what happened in France from 1789 to 1794. Culminating
in the Reign of Terror with about 40,000 executions, ‘the people’
indiscriminately took their revenge on anyone, innocent or guilty, whom they
saw as having been exploiting them for the past two centuries.
Today, we again have the growing gap between rich and
poor – a trend that just doesn’t seem to worry governments of a conservative
persuasion. (But doesn’t worry Labor-oriented governments and parties enough!)
And governments such as our present one seem to be trying to accelerate the
trend! Perhaps they are planning to rely on our ever-increasing internal
surveillance, powerful police forces and fortification mentalities, just as
the Roman aristocrats relied on their vassal armies of thugs, and the 18th
Century French aristos on their secret police and control of the press.
American tycoon Warren Buffet is more perceptive than most.
His comment, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the
rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning” is both a comment and a
warning. I think, unless we wake up soon, in 20 years or so western –
particularly Anglo – countries will be starting to reap the whirlwind of their
current policies and predilections and we will face revolution on the streets.
And Roman civil wars or French Reigns of Terror may be simply viewed as earlier
examples of the same phenomenon of dying civilisations.
I’m in no way against entrepreneurship. In fact that may be
the saviour of many of us who are finding it so much harder than it used to be.
(If we can find the key to unlock it for ourselves – and you, Jon, are doing a great job helping
us to do just that. So many thanks to you!)
But the problem we all face is now this overwhelming, all-encompassing greed.
It’s a pity our governments and most, but not all employers, are so enslaved to
it.
Tom says
Wow Paul,
Good contribution to the discussion. Well done.
In the last couple of years we have seen ominous signs of what we can expect.
Riots by hungry communities; murder by police, horrendous health outcomes in poorer parts of American society, completely ignored by the rest.
The US Government has seen the writing on the wall and is preparing for the inevitable collapse of democracy in their land. This is dramatically borne out by the massive purchase of hollow-nosed bullets which have been distributed to their law enforcement organisations. These bullets are definitely not for crowd control. They are designed to KILL!!! To cause maximum, almost irreparable damage!!!
They expect WAR – war with their own people!!!
And remember, “All Wars Are Bankers’ Wars!!!”
Having engineered the GFC and extracted Billion$ from the people in the aftermath, they are preparing to protect their ill-gotten gains – to the end.
Vive la Revolution!!!” It is equally inevitable!!!
Debbie Ayton says
What an insightful and thoughtful statement Paul Miles. There is an answer to societies ills but we have forgotten how to grow our own food preferring to drive to the shelf of a multinational corporation. And who wants to live in a bark hut and throw their tv’s and iphones in the bin. That would be going ‘backwards’ and make an extremely large rubbish pile. We all want to continue going ‘forwards’ and ‘educating’ ourselves to make an ever bigger tip out of our planet. Social change or annihilation by pollution? I wonder which will come first.
Docsmithy says
Perhaps u should go and write a book on it all, Paul… sounds like it will be far more popular, at least, than mine 😉
Rrusty says
I can’t stay
here much longer, Melinda The sun is getting high I can’t help you with your
troubles If you won’t help with mine I gotta get down Gotta get down to the
mine.
You keep me up just one more night I can’t stop here no more Little Ben clock says quarter to
eight You kept me up till four I gotta get down I gotta get down Or I can’t work there no more.
Lotta poor man make a five dollar bill Will keep him happy all the time Some other fellow’s
making nothing at all And you can hear him cry Can I go, buddy, can I go down Take
your shift at the mine
Gotta get down to the Cumberland mine That’s where I mainly spend my time Make good money,
five dollars a day If I made any more I might move away.
Lotta poor man got the Cumberland Blues He can’t win for losing Lotta poor man got to walk the
line Just to pay his union dues I don’t know now, I just don’t know If I’m
going back again.
tezza says
Great article Jon! I think the feminists need to step back and look at the big picture and think about what exactly they have “achieved” in the last 40 years. My understanding was that the goal of feminism was to give women choices and options – if so it seems the only goal scored was an own goal as everyone seems to have less choices now than 40 years ago. Instead of women being able to choose whether to work they now HAVE to work just to pay the bills. This may be fine for the ones with great careers on high pay but ask the average worker doing 9-5 in retail or clerical and then having to go home and still do all the house chores after work whether they are happier than their mother/grandmother was and I am not sure you will get a positive response.
To me the big mistake from societies point of view was the day that the banks started counting both incomes for loan purposes. As you say this allowed the people with 2 incomes to bid the prices up and have virtually forced women into the workforce in order to afford a home. The problem now is you cannot go backwards until we have some financial disaster that wipes out the banks (I have a feeling that is coming but just don’t know if it is 1 year or 20 years away!).
Docsmithy says
Eggsellent!! All points I made in my book Australia Imploded! in 1992
Tom says
Love your sense of humour Jon – and your insights!!!
It’s a pity that some readers are so uptight that they could not ascertain the spirit in which you wrote. I hope they can chill out. Modern living is a crippling force.
Actually, may I sincerely suggest that anybody who does have trouble relaxing should take up REIKI. It does wonders for balancing one’s psyche, among other human attributes. It really is amazing what it does for one’s whole self, both physical and psychological. I could not possibly over-recommend it!!!
The advent of the age of the robots will herald in the modern equivalent of the Roman “Circuses & Soup Kitchens”. But these only work for a short while. Eventually, society will change. It will rupture.
There will be a mass exodus from the cities because there is no need to be near your place of work if you have no work. People will hanker for the good old days of village life, of self sufficiency, of meaningful small communities. Some people will try to live near the sea, where the higher level of negative ions in the air makes them feel better about themselves. Others will want to “Go Bush”, or ‘Follow the Sun’ like grey nomads. Communal living will appeal to quite a few.
Will society (Government?) be willing to feed everyone?
Without any employment, and so no income, people will no longer be the prey of the “Haves”. These will set their attention on the other “Haves”, with even more concentration of wealth.
Society is in for some MASSIVE changes.
If we can keep the whole process peaceful, it will be very interesting to observe. If not, OH HELL!!!
Rosalie says
Loved your article (but only after fully reading it and understanding your humour and would love to claim my prize) and agree the old system is not working.
We moved from the need for a double income when we realised that there is no need to keep on buying to keep up with trends, each major purchase was assessed as we would an assess an investment. We still live very well and quality, well designed products last a long time. And yes, the woman, supported by my man, has been the main income producer for the last 15 years. By developing passive income streams through careful planning and spending some of our “leisure time” working for ourselves instead of just for others, we are now moving into a new phase of life where we are upsizing to a beautiful rural property which will sustain us for many years to come.
Seems every one needs to set goals to improve their personal economy.
Striving for constant growth, seemingly largely driven by a policy of population growth, and supply and demand concepts are not making for a better life for all.
Whoever can come up with a new, sustainable, economic model that improves everyone’s life would deserve the Noble Prize.
Docsmithy says
Not “the old system is not working” LoL
They changed the system to Fems in charge
That’s not the old system at all Learn wot the word “system” means
Suzsi Welch says
Ignore Doc Smithy. He’s a bit of a know all that only listens to himself. I expect I’ll get hate mail now. Lol! ?
Kathy says
This issue has absolutely nothing to do with feminism. The problem has everything to do with capitalism.
Not true capitalism, at least not in the proper sense of the word. The so called “capitalism” we have today is not true capitalism.
No, what we have now is crony capitalism, where those with the deepest pockets and vested interests and strongest lobby groups get to keep the status quo, and those in power who benefit from this are happy to oblige.
Take just one recent example. Uber and the fight put up by the taxi industry against it, covertly and overtly aided and abetted by state governments. Uber provides true competition to a tired, inefficient, expensive and pretty much closed shop taxi service. Governments don’t want that to change because they make a motza from the licensing.
In a true free market capitalist world, the new and better and quite often cheaper service that people actually want would replace the tired, old, inefficient and expensive service.
But it is in most government’s interests to protect the old, inefficient industries with vested interests at the expense of true competition, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Our two supermarket duopoly is another classic example. The barriers to entry for a large supermarket style business is prohibitive. This suits both the current owners of the two major supermarkets, Woolworths and Wesfarmers. It’s only huge behemoths like Costco, or smaller but nimbler and backed by foreign ownership corporations like Aldi who can afford to enter this market.
Industries still operating with last millennium’s mindsets, or organisations who take on too much debt they are unable to repay (I’m talking to you Twiggy Forrest, from Fortescue Metals) should not be bailed out or to cry foul and demand a government enquiry when their competition do exactly what they’re supposed to do.
Let the free market decide. And stop blaming this phony capitalism that we currently operate under and feminism.
Suzsi Welch says
Brilliant discussion. However, is feminism to blame was ONLY a catchy title which Jon then blew out of the water. It’s just a discussion – I don’t expect us to change the world any time soon….
Icarus32Soar says
Your Friday edition is kinda No BS most of the time but this is the most offensively male chauvinistic pig insult to all womanhood, it gives BS a bad name, mate! I’m no women’s libber, but I find your phrase “the woman” to be dismissive, patronising and condescending. Of course you think you’re funny and joking and ironic and you don’t mean it but your lack of education and manners is beyond boganism. You have reduced the most complex period yet in human history to a sensationalistic and cheap gender shot. Have you ever stopped to think that women would rather CHOOSE to work for the dignity and financial independence it gives them RATHER THAN just slave over their lord’s and master’s progeny, shitty bottoms, snotty noses, his dinner and laundry while he’s out there shooting arrows and thumping his chest? You mean to be enlightened but your wording betrays a scary gender prejudice.
By the way I have been a working mum all my adult life have raised kids and looked after “the husband” at the same time…
I’m unsubscribing. Have a good life, or better still, get one!
E3 says
An idea for you John.
Replace “women” with “globalisation” and philosofise on that.
Stuart Alcock says
Whilst a good article, you are somewhat mistaken about Dad being able to rake up a house deposit on his sole wages income. I was born in 1954, about 10 years before you Jon so I should know and I grew up in a (then) typical single income family. As a young man, my own father worked at two jobs (shift work overnight + a day job as an electrical wholesaler storeman). Yes, jobs were much easier to get but wages were comparatively low and one could not generally hope to move into their own dwelling without making some sort of sacrifices for a reasonable period of time. In my parents’ case, such sacrifices also meant living in the garage that they first built for three years or so until it became possible (just) to build a new house. And please don’t get me started on other shortcomings such as (mainly) British cars of questionable quality which often needed to be push started, particularly in inclement weather. Incidentally, not everyone had even one car, let alone the two or three which are commonplace in today’s households. Phones were also a luxury item as was ice cream…. . Fast food….? It barely existed in Australia beyond fish ‘n chips (wrapped up in newspaper)!
Hoss says
We don’t need to turn back time to enjoy life now. It’s possible to have all the great labour saving devices that technology has delivered at minimal cost. I bought a Toyota Camry 2000 model for $2,200. Great car, superbly reliable. Solar panels on our house roof – cost very little, repaid itself in no time and now we don’t have electricity bills. Washing machine – $700 new or $150 second hand on Gumtree for an amazing piece of technology that will last for years and save countless labour. Smart phone – dozens of devices in one for less than what a camera used to cost. It’s possible to design and build a small modest, but very comfortable home for a reasonable sum – design it so it can be expanded or made more luxurious in the future when affordable. Smaller home means larger vege patch that provides much of our fresh food. Either partner can choose to stay home with young children or both go part-time for a few years while the kids are young. We all have the choice today to live in simple abundance. And down the track when our frugal but satisfying lifestyle has lead to savings and passive income – the choice is there to indulge in some extra luxuries or just let our passive income cover our simple lifestyle so we can put our time into priorities other than a job. No great revolution required – everything is at our fingertips now.
cil says
thanks for reminder of why I have a “smart” phone…!!!!
. My +$300 camera was only 3meg… My iPhone is 5…. Plus phone, plus email, plus calander…..
Nick Johnson says
I guess I’m missing the part where the women weren’t to blame for this. If everything in this article is true, then it points to women in the 60s being selfish and malcontent. Having children and then getting a job to pay for someone else to raise them is messed up. And now we’re stuck in a place where there is no choice because the decision was taken from us by those who wanted our choice for themselves.