Sound Versus Fury

2006-07-03T03:46:00.000-07:00

A comment I recently made over at RYWHM, concerning an incident on a prominent reality tv programme:

Not for one moment do I excuse the incidents in question.

But the protests against big brother have been going on for a long time. I would contend that anti-Big Brother arguments equate to shooting the messenger.

Leaving aside the question of Sunday's events, Big Brother seems to reflect pretty accurately (with some bias toward stupidity/extroversion) the dominant and well celebrated Australian macho/bogan culture (which after all tends rather to celebrate many dim-witted extroverts).

It seems rather ironic that when this is portrayed honestly on screen people are suddenly up in arms about it. And even more remarkable that people would be concerned about sheltering teenagers from this kind of stuff. The discussions, language and hijinx represented on Big Brother represent fairly precisely (in fact rather tamely) the world that all teenagers find themselves in, and that all pre-pubescents will be entering before long - for better or for worse. Anyone who fails to understand this can only be well out of touch with modern Australian culture. Big brother could hardly be held accussed of normalising behaviour or attitudes that are already normal - again, for better or for worse (you have to wonder whether the kind of incident wittnessed on Sunday was not far more 'normal' than we might like to believe).

A lot of what big brother represents may be less than pretty. And it may make many people feel rather uncomforable. But it does generate debate, and it does hold up (something of) a mirror, and it does force questions. And, without being much of a fan, for that, I would argue, we may all be better off.

Over - Originally posted December 1st, 2005

2006-02-24T17:43:00.000-08:00

And so its been done. And 47% of the people in this country support institutionalised cruelty, institutionalised hate, institutionalised murder. A society that is reduced to hating those that transgress its laws shows itself as a truely fearful, scared, feeble society.

Two wrongs will never, ever make a right.

Economic Irrationalism - Originallly posted November 14, 2005

2006-02-24T17:42:00.000-08:00

It is an unfortunate consequence of the political system that so little actual explanation or analysis of legislation is readily available to the public, particularly from official sources. This makes it very difficult for the lay person to make reasonable assessments of prospective legislative changes.

The currently proposed Australian government IR reforms fit very much into this category. The general message from the government seems to be not to panic - that the reforms will be at worst benign and at best generally improve things for most people, by increasing flexibility and productivity without any decrease in the value of labour. There is always the possibility that this is true. And given the apparent imminence of the changes, one might hope that would be true. However, when it comes to industrial relations, the vision currently being sold by the government of a win for everyone sounds frankly utopian. Human nature dictates that to a large extent workers want more money for less work and employers want more work for less money. As such, industrial relations tensions seem to be an inevitability. The question of trickle-down effects aside, alterations to the balance of power cannot fail to be to the benefit on one party and the detriment of another.

I cannot help harbour suspicions that the reasons for the these changes run somewhat according to the following analysis:

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We have Tobacco taxes because the short term cost of tobacco production does not reflect the broader social cost that tobacco imposes on the community. Tobacco taxes go some way to pay for the hidden costs of tobacco usage and hence save the community money at the user’s expense. We have employment protection laws because the price of labour does not reflect the full cost of work to individuals, families and communities in terms of stress and sacrifice unless these laws are in place. Employment protection laws balance the artificially low cost of employment to reflect its true value – to bring out the hidden costs of labour. They provide a user-pays system, saving the community money by demanding that employers pay for the full cost of labour, rather than just covering the short term market price. Unless they are paid for by the user, hidden costs always come back to sting us in the end. Hence it is crucial that government provides a way of figuring these costs back in to the economy; as it frequently does by creating user-pays systems. That is true economic rationalism and good economic management.

But with the Howard government’s IR reforms, the true societal value of employment will be artificially cheapened, and we find ourselves heading for a US style economic system; where the community at large are called on to subsidise the operating costs of employers. The IR laws represent a form of welfare, a free handout for employers at the expense or employees and the broader community, who must take up the slack of their boss’s unpaid expenses. In anyone’s language, this is a swindle.

Despite the huge economic might of the United States, its productivity is ultimately hampered and lowered by its severe social and economic imbalances. Contrary to the argument that the US benefits from its present industrial relations system, we only need to look to the countries of Northern Europe (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) to observe the economic advantages of egalitarian societies. Instead of a move in this direction, the Howard IR reforms will provide a back door handout to employers to cover their costs, and so will reduce the incentive for businesses to operate as efficiently as they presently need to do. For the sake of a short term profit gain, these new laws will burn our economic engine (employees) out, leaving us with a lop-sided, crime and angst ridden US-style society. This can only be described as economic _irrationalism_.

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Let us hope that the reality doesn’t turn out this way…

Dear Vitriol

2006-02-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

Since it's been so long...
And our time together so short..

First things first.
I'll be bringing in a few archives from somethingversusnothing.com, which will be shifted to a primarily music focussed site.

See you then.