2 June 2009
Time to shift the goalposts and refocus recovery
In all the debate around the Australian economy, our debt levels and the best way to ride out the global downturn there is one discussion still to be had. The recognition that the current crisis is, at its core, an ethical and moral issue first and an economic issue second. The financial crisis is much more than a crisis about money. Rather, it is equally about scarce resources and the failure of the free market to ensure they are distributed in a manner which provides a living for everyone and justice for all. The ethical debate which I am suggesting still needs to take place, should have at its core a number of key issues including - work participation, what Professor Richard Sennett recently termed 'a job for life', and the way people suffer when they live in short-term regimes
- the future lives of young people impacted by the current global downturn and the shifting grounds around the meaning of 'community'
- anxiety created by an 'overtly capitalist agenda' - the need to succeed at all costs
- climate change and its future impact on communities around the world.
Now, as General Motors, one of the world's largest corporations, buckles under the weight of outmoded thinking and declares bankruptcy, we should be learning from the past and choosing a new direction and perhaps a more just future. Do we really want to return to a 'status quo' where 80 per cent of the world's assets are either owned or controlled by 20 per cent of the world's population? Some would argue the poor are not getting poorer (an argument about statistics and semantics) but there has been no quick fix to poverty and the reality in many countries is different. In fact, the wealthy have got wealthier. New thinking and revisited priorities are the only way to move forward.
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