I've always thought that the unfettered capitalism of the United States has been a sort of extreme implementation. Looking at the country from the outside, it is quite weird to see how wealth and purchasing power are seen to be social determinants of success and ability. It is this weird metric, where it appears that to be "successful" you need to be earning lots of money numbers, as that seems to be the "value" that society appears to be placing on your skills and worth. Aside from the unhealthiness of chasing imaginary numbers that never end (infinity is the limit!)... lets be perfectly honest, teachers/doctors/nurses provide quite a lot more value to society than CEOs and other executive suite people. The only difference appears to be the lack of responsibility for consequences for those higher up in the tier of "success". Interestingly enough, I'm not quite convinced that the ability of an executive is that much better than a random number generator... however, the ability to take credit for success and pass the buck on failure is definitely highly developed... as is that famed ability to "fail upwards".

Anyway, in the near unparalleled growth of the last few decades... Australia seems to have shed the idea of democratic socialism that used to be the bedrock of our society. Of course, we aren't as far gone as the United States, we still have a public healthcare system and mostly decent public schools and all of that... but we did take our cues from our "free-market" brethren. Anyone who can say "free-market" with a straight face is either a little deluded, or slightly unaware... or just a good actor. Of course, I don't advocate for a socialist system either... but what Americans deem as socialist is often quite middle of the road normal for most of the rest of the developed world.

Back to the point, when everyone is in a growth market and there is money to be made everywhere... everyone wants to be a capitalist, and wants those nuisance handbrakes taken away. Don't hold me back is the mantra... and that often overshadows the other idea of don't leave anyone behind. There is no denying that an economic system is NOT a zero-sum game, but it is definitely not without winners and losers.

As we approach a recession that might hit worldwide, with inflation rampant and wages stagnant... well, we have this interesting idea that "workers" should forgo decent wage increases that at least KEEP real purchasing power in order to keep inflation in check. Well, yes... but why do the "workers" have to do that? The decisions that led to the rampant inflation wasn't one from the middle to lower classes... and they were the ones that increased productivity whilst those profits were distributed upwards whilst keeping wages stagnant. That is a bit of a raised eyebrow moment there...

As I write this... it might appear that I'm complaining due to being on the wrong side... the "losing team" instead of the winning one. Well, luckily... I've been fortunate, and can mostly look at this from a pretty detached sort of view. We aren't wealthy, but we are able to weather any downturn... it will hurt a lot of others before it reaches us.

I want Australia to return to a better equilibrium... after being away so long, I find that we have adopted too much of the excesses across the spectrum of politics from a country that doesn't really have the same ideals as us. We share similar democratic and liberal ideas... but apart from that, there is a marked difference in the ideas of individualism and pragmatism. I fell like we have moved so far away in the time that we have lived overseas.... perhaps it will be too difficult to reclaim that again, as people now seem more interested in protecting what they have... and are scared that helping others means losing what they might have to gain.

Of course, there is much of this that is quite generalised... but I do definitely see a layer of society that has grown into this idea of wealth equaling success. I guess if that is what makes them happy, then I have nothing really much to say about it... but I despise them for the damage to the fabric of society that their excesses have caused.

It has been said that when you get older you should grow more conservative... and when you are younger that you are more progressive. In other words, when you are older, you have a head (wiser)... and when you are younger, you have more ideals (heart). I feel like that as I grow older... I see the imbalances more and more in society (I was also idealistic in my younger days), I guess I am sort of wiser... but it comes with a sadness, as I start to see that it becomes a difficult problem for a society to wean itself off a individualist/capitalistic balance (don't hold me back) to one that has more of a group idea as priority first (don't leave anyone behind).

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

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