That famous lefty, Noam Chomsky, made the comment that he gets a little of his information from the financial newspapers. He explained that while people will overlook the inaccuracies in your average daily paper, when it came to money people were less forgiving. If the paper you read to convince yourself that one day you can be as rich as Elon fails to warn you about the Marxist guerrillas about to take over Gilead and your shares in the oil company there will be worthless, you’re less likely to shrug and put it down to the journalist having a bad day. Interestingly, it was the Wall Street Journal that printed the expose on Trump wishing Epstein a happy birthday on a card years before he was charged with anything (Epstein, not Trump).
Actually I find it strange that Trump should be threatening to sue. Wishing someone a happy birthday only to later find out that they’re a sex offender is hardly something that you can be blamed for. After all, who hasn’t drawn a naked female on a birthday card… Ok, most of you, but still it doesn’t mean that you’re guilty of anything more than bad taste and poor character judgement. And, given the number of people Trump sacked in his first term in office, you’d have to concede that the latter is already a matter of public record.
But, speaking of most, there was an interesting article in “The Australian Financial Review” about how most Australians now rely on the government as their main source of income. As I may have mentioned two or three times before, I’ve followed Chomsky’s example because there’s a lot of useful information in the Finn, as we cool dudes who watch the markets like to call it. You just need to get past their way of looking at the world which is something akin to insisting that grandma’s life support isn’t turned off before the weekend, not so that you can get to see her one last time, but because her life insurance will worth more if she can just last till Saturday.
So after reading that the NDIS was the main “culprit” in this sad state of affairs where people relied on the government as their main source of income, I delved further into the article only to discover that the study by the Centre for Independent Studies showed that those naughty disabled people weren’t the only culprits. No, no sirree, it also included public servants. And by public servants it included teachers, health workers, the defence forces and any other government worker. It even included people like Tim Wilson who has relied on government jobs for a large part of his adult life, in spite of being so hostile to the idea of relying on the government.
Mm, now I don’t know about you but when I hear about people relying on the government, I have a different picture than one of someone working. I don’t see myself saying to a nurse as she removes my catheter that she’s very lucky that the government is supporting her. Neither do say to the policeman who is writing me the ticket that it’s a shame that he has to rely on the government because without them, there’d be no need to raise money like this and there’d be no need to have these ridiculous traffic lights which I just ignored because why should a pedestrian be allowed to cross the road when I’m in a hurry…
I guess that’s the thing that needs asking though. Are the Centre For Independent Studies suggesting that people paid by the government aren’t doing anything useful so their work could be privatised? Or are they saying that we have no need for health or education? If we had no army, it’d be ok because surely another country’s army could move in a do the job for no cost to the taxpayer.
In other words, what’s the point of the study?
Ah, that’s right. We pay too much tax. Although the funny thing is that most of the people who say that are the ones with elaborate schemes to avoid doing just that!
Also by Rossleigh:
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And those in the pay of the government via the House of Reps or the Senate are more than handsomely compensated for the “work” they do and in many cases for years afterwards. In the case of some that amounts to very little whilst those on pensions, disabilities, unemployed or single parent status need to justify every cent lest you should be stealing from the taxpayer. We should turn that around and have politicians and high paid public servants justify their “allowances” which often add thousands of dollars to their already inflated salaries.
The far right Macro business have also been claiming similar by framing & cherry picking…..
Alrighty then!
As a high school teacher for the last 45 years I stand proud of ripping off Australia by being on the public purse …..
I wonder if any of my Maths and Physics students actually used what we covered in class, or did they follow my lead and also become free money bludgers?
Ah yes, well said.
However …
I spent years as a ‘hired sleuth’ looking to understand and sort out contractual commercial / financial rights in large projects that had ‘run off the rails’. Without fear or favor, I worked on both sides of the ‘fence’, private and public.
Like contenders for most pious in a game manufactured by gods and lawyers, they were both as ‘righteous’ as one another. At all stages all the available garbs and guiles were used for blame/risk-shifting and strivings for survival – a battle of wit and tacit rules outside those of the L.A.W.
Sometimes for me, they applied the ‘no holds barred’ rule, despite privilege. Nevertheless I always got paid.
It seems, such is our lot.
I’d suggest few people that have a problem with increasing dependence on the public sector would wish to address the issue by starting with fewer nurses.
But the health sector is a good place to start.
Years ago hospitals had a catering manager with some catering staff. Now they’re likely to have an Executive General Manager- Nutrition Services, Wellbeing and Hospitality. There will be half a dozen support roles for this EGM.
The hospital will have a dedicated Chief Legal Officer with a few lawyers.
Now there will be a General Manager of Public and Community Relations. There will be someone monitoring media reports.
There used to be a Personnel Manager with a side kick. Now there’s a Chief People, Talent and Culture Officer with a couple of score of subordinates.
The inefficiency of the health sector is the huge growth in the non patient care related overheads, not because of nurses.
It’s time to have a genuine examination of whether these roles are just covering political and management arses.
I think the health sector growth in overheads unrelated to patient care is typical of the public sector more generally.
°°°°°°
Re- NDIS
It’s a fine objective, but…
° is there a performance indicator that assesses number of indirect/administrative roles to service delivery roles? Or to those requiring care? What is it and how is it trending?
° the ‘for profit’ sector is always going to seek to find rorts in government funded programs.
° NDIS contractors have significantly replaced the NFP and voluntary sector. I’m not persuaded this is in the public interest
°°°°°
And generally, the inefficiency of the public sector is the system itself , rather than those working in it.