October 2004 #2

Lets Pretend There's a Race

Pity about the race at the weekend. Ford missing out again. Bugger!! Maybe next time. As I understand it there was some other race decided as well. What was it? Oh, that’s right, the race for the ‘privilege’ to rule.

I guess that you understand I’ve been part of the group running the real ‘scare campaign’ for the last couple of years. I’ve been banging on about how bad things are and in the lead up to the election how bad they’ll be if the conservatives get in. Guilty as charged on that one. But what was the reason Labor didn’t win? What if the real power brokers in the alternative capitalist party wanted to lose? Do you like playing pretend? I do.

Lets pretend that since the second world war that the capitalist enterprise has been accelerating as various governments, of all shades, work to provide the social and legal conditions to allow the growth of personal wealth and attempt to mitigate the most egregious effects of the capitalist system. Lets pretend that both the conservative and the liberal sides of politics understand the advantages of economic ‘growth’ both to the overall ‘common wealth’ and to the contentment of the populace. After all a contented and sated people are less likely to revolt and demand radical change are they?

Lets pretend that the developments in engineering that allow supersonic flight, the ability to move huge amount of data around the globe, the ability to capture the atom for use in curative therapies and the ability to increase crop yields, delivered huge profits to the companies that developed them. Lets pretend that these same companies soon realised that there were limited markets for the goods or services they provide. There are, after all, only a limited number of airlines and uses for data. Lets pretend that these same companies realise that if they are to survive, they need to ‘diversify’ and take over other companies.

A short diversion here. When I use the term ‘company’ I mean the major shareholders of an enterprise or business. A company is a fictional entity but, obviously, these companies are controlled by real, flesh and blood human beings and it is they who control what the company does. In short the beneficiaries of the company are other people, not some abstract entity.

Lets pretend that as the companies look around they gradually find that due to their takeovers and mergers all they really have achieved is to create oligopolies that control certain production, distribution and profit streams. In short, they find they have run out of profit making potential. Lets pretend that by the mid 1980s the companies realise that there are only so many cars that a family can afford to own and only so many take away meals they can afford to eat.

Lets pretend that by the 1990s these companies realise that the income earning potential of the overall population of Australia is falling due to the sacking, firing, retrenchment or casualisation of their workforces. Lets pretend that the companies sit down and work out that even though there are only so many cars, TV’s, boats, houses and overseas holidays the average wage earner can afford, there are some things every Australian needs. Those being, among other things, electricity, petrol, water, postal services, gas and telecommunications.

Lets pretend that by the mid 1990s the union movement has been decimated, the ‘economy’ is looking a little worse for wear and the promises of Labor governments in the past decade or so have failed to actually improve the living standards of the community. Lets pretend that by this time our commonwealth bank has been sold to private profiteers, that our national airline is flogged to overseas speculators, that roads and electricity suppliers are now owned by the private sector and the costs of travel, banking, accessing water, electricity and going to see Aunty Betty have all risen by several orders of magnitude.

Lets pretend that the real power brokers of the major political parties realise that if they want to win power and thus provide their private business sponsors with the conditions necessary to allow them to increase their profits to obscene figures, they must get the ruling party to enact laws that prevent workers from accessing their right to strike and laws that shift the welfare burden from the high and middle wage and salary earners to the low and no income earners. Lets pretend that the government gradually weans the middle class workforce onto a welfare system that provides them with benefits for taking out private health insurance and private retirement superannuation. Lets pretend that the government enacts tax reforms that reallocates the tax burden in such a way that low and no income earners become the (proportionally) highest taxed group in the ‘economy’. Lets pretend that the government ramps up the benefits available to the most wealthy and most able to pay their own way. Lets pretend that the working class look to their traditional party and realise that they offer no support or succour to them any more.

Lets pretend that by the end of the 1990s, middle Australia is firmly attached to the teat of mother welfare. Lets pretend that the international economy is being supported by huge transfers of tax payers money onto the speculative markets though the introduction of compulsory superannuation. Lets pretend that the once ‘mutual’ insurance companies that traditionally, at the least, protected the money you paid in, were ‘demutuallised’ and the funds they had accumulated, our funds, were released to the speculators to be tossed around the international stock markets like so much confetti at a wedding. Lets pretend that the effects of all this cash, our cash by the way, inflated – artificially – the ‘wealth’ attributed to a nation and therefore allowed the politicians to point to how ‘robust’, ‘strong’ or ‘resilient’ the economy was.

Lets pretend that over the last 20 years the corporate media was happy to play along with this fantasy land scenario and hand in hand with the companies and governments, provided only positive coverage dressed up as ‘news’. Lets pretend that the governments deregulate the media so that, basically, anything can be said, written and broadcast, no matter how distorted or fanciful it is. Lets pretend that the corporate media works hand in glove to hide the reality that the vast majority on this sorry planet live each day. Lets pretend the corporate media ignores the voices of those who sound the warning bells.

Lets pretend that by the middle of the first decade of the 21st century the vast majority of middle class voters are so comfortable and relaxed that they don’t want to change the situation that seemingly offers them so much. Lets pretend that the companies, the political directors and the media are convinced that the only way to go is to continue to sell off the utilities we rely on, to continue to legislate against workers rights, the disabled, the substance dependent, the public school system, hospitals and our medical infrastructure, that they work together to convince us we don’t need change.

Lets pretend that there is still some way to go in achieving these ends and that, with promises of more wealth, security and happiness, they already know what the real outcomes will be. Higher unemployment, a drop in health and education standards, higher charges, an accelerating rise in poverty and distress along with the steady but unrelenting flow of wealth upwards. Lets pretend that the Labor party strategists – for that is what they truly are – wanted to lose this election so that the coming pain and suffering can been seen to have been inflicted by their opponents. Lets pretend that like all power brokers and strategists, they take the approach that no matter how many soldiers are killed trying to take the hill, the objective remains – to take the hill regardless of how long it takes and how many lives it costs.

Lets pretend that all I’ve written is pretend. I’d like to hope that is all it is and nothing more. I don’t think we need knights in shining armour to ride, ‘triumphantly’, over the hill to ‘save’ us at some point in the future. We need real leadership, vision and justice to prevail. To quote the words of Shaun Carney, from his book on the Labor introduced ‘accord’ that "it is to be hoped that other Australians will not have to foot the bill for their folly".

What is not pretend is that like the outcome of the Bathurst race, the outcome of the election means least to those who lives remain unchanged at best or will be plunged into further despair at worst. All the recent election has done has demonstrate how greedy and self centred the main political parties are and how gullible the electorate really is. What is not pretend is that I maintain my faith in the basic goodness of people. My hope is that the folly of the weekend can be ameliorated by the insistence of the electorate to hold our politicians, no matter what their colour, accountable. The race is not over yet and we can’t pretend it is. In some ways I think it is only just beginning - again.