The Included And Excluded
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
16 Dec 2007
By chance I was in Rome during the week of the Federal elections for a meeting of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace and the yearly meeting of the Cardinals with Pope Benedict. These short gatherings provided many snapshots into life around the world.
Not all the news was bad (although much was), but my first reaction was to draw the unremarkable conclusion that life in Australia is better for most of us than it is for most overseas.
While the climate in much of our continent is harsh, we have abundant natural resources and a good way of life.
Argentina was as prosperous as we were 100 years ago. Now they are recovering from economic chaos, while the powers and morale of parliament have been radically weakened in favour of the president, the wife of the previous president.
With the triumph of the market in the last 25 years the world has changed in three basic ways.
Prosperity is spreading as the economies of the poor countries grew faster (4% growth a year) than the economies of the established economies.
A decline in the absolute number of poor has occurred throughout the world, except in sub-Saharan Africa where their number increased.
Relative poverty is on the increase in the rich countries also. There is more inequality today, because it is no longer true, economically speaking, that a rising tide lifts all boats. While minimum standards have risen in Australia, even as the gap between very rich and poor increased here, in some places overseas e.g. in the post-Communist world quite a number became poorer. Some are excluded.
A professor of economics from Bologna pointed out that this increased inequality is dangerous because it can generate envy and even hatred.
He also explained a poverty trap that is often unacknowledged: the link between nutrition and productivity. Sixty percent of our food intake is needed to maintain our body strength and energy. In poor countries malnutrition directly hinders productivity.
Apart from the fact that we have a bigger problem with obesity than with malnutrition, the Australian economy fits largely within this pattern of rising prosperity and inequality, even with our resources boom.
Nature abhors a vacuum and the strong are often tempted to take what they can. While union membership now covers only 20% of our workforce, a strong union counterbalance remains necessary against the increasing concentration of economic muscle in larger firms and immense multi-nationals.
Union power has been abused, as every power can be, but strong unions with pro-business leaders are indispensable to long term prosperity and internal peace.
A majority of Australians do want unemployment to decrease, but not by driving down minimum wages, abolishing Sunday and the weekend, and reducing holiday entitlements especially when a few enjoy extraordinary annual salaries of millions or even tens of millions of dollars.
There is still work for the unions.
