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We are living in the midst of the longest stretch of economic prosperity ever known in Australia. We have been fortunate not to have been through a recession for over 15 years. In the midst of a record sharemarket, low interest rates, lower unemployment rates, and record property prices, we have governments at state and federal level running budget surpluses in the combined order of more than ten billion dollars. All things seem to be rosy. And yet...
Earlier this year The Age reported that local government infrastructure has been run down to the tune of $6 billion. We are seeing the fruits of growing ignorance of global warming, and of the privatisation of many once-public assets. In addition we are loading up the next generation with study debts, all the while making participation in property ownership extremely difficult. We have sold off schools in areas where young people are now growing up; we prefer to offer tax cuts to the wealthy instead of investing in education at every level and public health facilities, and we continue to neglect the growing environmental pressures necessitating significant investment in sustainable technologies and renewable energy.
In the midst of economic boom times, we are neglecting to build for the future in any meaningful way, preferring to dine out on it. Yet we seem to be collectively anaesthetised against the costs we are accumulating. Our greatest fear - at least in the public conversation - is terrorism. Yet the potential for disaster within the frameworks of our current public policy is much more sinister than any potential terrorist threat. We need to take our responsibilities to the future much more seriously - and see them in much greater terms than the accumulation of sufficient superannuation to see us through retirement.
Posted by gary at April 13, 2006 10:12 PM
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