Not Being Worse Off. Boot the BOOT.

When I hear someone entering the IR debate with the rider that nobody should be worse off I wonder how our education has changed in such a short time.

We could pick the statement apart. “Nobody should be worse off.”

Who is nobody? Is it the person in the job in question, the person who relies on the dividends of the company in question? The person on welfare needing the tax to be paid or the person who would have had the job if it hadn’t been taken away because it paid too much.,

What is worse off? I think of the 600,000 manufacturing employees that lost jobs because wages got too high, not the public servant that just got another pay rise.

It is a great pity that the elites making this statement have not had a classical education, because if they had they would have known that in the 18^th Century Rousseau observed that as the world became richer moral standards dropped. As people joined society they became plagued by vice and sin. Before cities and society people were in tune with their selves, nature and the arts. In cities people started self love by comparing themselves to their neighbours. People stopped understanding themselves.

In the 19^th Century Nietzsche thought society was wrong because people did not want to be meek, or humble, or turn the other cheek implying the morality of society is wrong headed.

 In the 20^th Century Mosca and Pareto observed that conscious, planned action for the good of the community is impossible, since each group is simply trying to secure its own advantage.

Suffering is a part of life, and if you rescue someone they will not grow. Had the elites had a classical education they would know that they are just affirming what those dead white men have known for hundreds of years.

From time to time we all get to be worse off.

Over the last 30 years there has been a perception that we have been in perpetual growth and are all better off than our parents. That is incorrect on a number of levels.

Physical.

Over that time there have been fires, floods, cyclones, droughts, and sickness that has made many people worse off. Society sees it on the news and grieves for two minutes before moving on with their lives. Being worse off is a normal part of human suffering. 

The 2019 – 2020 bushfires are a great example of what I am trying to say. This year’s the bushfires burnt significantly less area than the average over the last 30 years. However, because of where the fires were they were more visible to those in the bubble and therefore created more attention.

Every time there is a natural disaster many people are worse off for many reasons; it is part of life.

Emotional.

From the beginning of the bible it told the story of humans not being able to control their emotions. Aristotle acknowledged human selfishness. Descartes recognised that people were controlled by their emotions first and rational thought second. Schopenhauer, the philosopher of pessimism, wrote that our most primary force is the will to survive, closely followed by the need to procreate. Other than that, every life history is a story of suffering.

For centuries philosophers have known that humans are driven by their emotions and their constant need to make themselves feel good. Of recent times psychologists have taught that whenever you do something that makes you feel good, you need to do more the next time to derive the same satisfaction.

One chocolate becomes a whole block, one drink becomes a bottle, one like on Facebook initiates a craving for hundreds. 

Our constant desire for pleasure has led to annual overseas travel or the lifelong desire for an Ocean Cruise becoming a yearly event. Dining out once a month became once a week and then 3 times a week. A morning coffee got to, how many. 

It could be argued that most are emotionally worse off today than they were 30 years ago. By giving into their primal desires and not subjecting themselves to abstinence or rational thought our society has deteriorated resulting in us being worse off.

Financial.

Society’s perpetual drive for gratification has lead to an increase in household debt that is putting an increased financial burden on the majority of Australian households. 

Our houses need to be bigger and better. We need more and better clothes. We dine out instead of dining frugally at home. We buy lunches instead of making are own. We take overseas holidays while we outsource home maintenance instead of doing it ourselves.

The normal financial situation could be summed up by saying that we now outsource most non-gratifying jobs while we invest in gratifying activities that need to be constantly ramped up.

Conclusion.

The only people not worse off are those that live in the bubble that have escaped physical harm, turned a blind eye to emotional harm and hidden their financial harm through ever increasing wage increases without the appropriate productivity increase.