Home ownership has almost become an impossible dream in Australia and other Western capitalist countries. Governing authorities struggle in vain to stem the unrelenting increase in prices of land for domestic dwellings. It is probable that the struggle is unable to succeed as long as capitalism is uncontained; as long as the rules of the so-called “free market system” are accepted as inviolable.

It is probable that the reason is unpalatable to the materialistic, self-interested mindset of the Western citizen. Generations have been brought up in the milieu of personal ownership governed by the rules of capitalism which are accepted as the best system of national governance. And while there is nothing wrong with capital, the rules by which its employment came into being and are being perpetuated contain fatal flaws which render it fair and workable only to a diminishing few, and painfully costly to an increasing majority.

Democracy is designed to be the greatest good for the greatest number. But the aristocratically-generated rules we imported from England in 1788, don’t allow us to arrive at what Rousseau termed the general will. (*Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 -1778) ‘The Social Contract’). Two major flaws of the Westminster system are responsible. First, differentiated wealth and partisan interests coalesced fragmenting communities. Secondly, those interests brought to bear whatever power they possessed in order to influence government policy to benefit themselves. Over time, partisan propaganda gathered followers. Parties were formed with differing and often opposing values, fomenting division, adversarialism and political-impotence. Under these conditions, the general will is supplanted by the individual will*.

So, contrary to what a former prime minister either ignorantly or mischievously touted, our democracy is anything but robust. Sure, it was for him and his privileged cohort. But the struggle of the majority continues and increases. Eventually the time came and now is when the accepted rules produced such an inequitable distribution of the euphemistically-called common wealth, that affording to purchase or even rent a home is nigh, if not completely, impossible. The inadequate supply of homes that were available for rent were owned by the privileged, and they, as seems to be a common weakness humanity, wanted to charge as much as the hallowed market would allow.

This euphemistically-termed “free enterprise” is, simply, greed! And what is greed about if not the fear of insecurity, poverty, loss of control, insignificance, powerlessness – in a word, lack. There are among us those without abundance who experience no lack. For immunity to the above mentioned fears, they have found within themselves a mysterious resource of provision unreliant on material. Love rather than fear impels them, and they are content with enough, even if it is little. Love draws and includes; fear drives and alienates. We, in the West, seem more controlled by fear, and implacably-resistant to being content with little.

It is an indictment of our current system that a home — an essential requirement for an ordinary life of dignity — is treated as a tradable, wealth-creating resource. It is also an indictment of a majority of our parliamentarians — the “cost of living and housing” decision-makers — who own one or more negatively-geared houses, the now unaffordable rental income from which they benefit to the detriment of the many wanting a single roof over their heads.

How did we get here? We blindly accepted several associated evils: partisanship, political donations, negative gearing, land-banking, speculation, foreign ownership, Airbnb, private developers, and (dare I risk naming the holiest of cows) private ownership of public land and exploitation of its resources for personal gain. Philosophers, poets, artisans, religious mystics offer what is clearly an unpopular alternative. Rousseau encapsulates this alternative. “Every man (woman) has by nature a right to all that is necessary to him; but the positive act that makes him proprietor of certain property, excludes him from the residue. His portion having been allotted to him, he ought to confine himself to it and he has no further right to the undivided property”. (ibid)

If there is to be an equitable solution to the current community and national crises (cost of living, housing affordability, environmental destruction, energy generation, racism, global alliances, et al) our broken political system must be transformed, ie, to become non-partisan. No parties! Ban all political donations and make election funds available from the public purse on a population pro-rata basis. That will see the end of parties, corporate control of policy, redirection of public wealth to the public purse, and the beginning of healthy negotiation to achieve governance for the public good; the general will. The growing support for independent parliamentary representatives flags the end of a polarising era, if only we will wake up to the problem of “business as usual”, and the associated certainty of societal collapse if we don’t. Wisdom challenges us all to consider “how much is enough”, to be content with enough, making it possible for all to have enough. It’s called humanity.

I’m not suggesting that our capitalist obsessions are ever likely to ditch what we know, love and strive for, but the above statement* should give us pause in this age of gross inequitable distribution. Without impoverishing anyone, but appropriately enriching the majority, there are adjustments that we could and should make in the interests of providing all that is necessary to all. Unless we do, it’s a delusion to call ourselves a democracy. The morally-indefensible privatisation of public wealth must be redressed. The morally indefensible excess living comfortably alongside deprivation must be redressed. We need to be motivated by a different energy. The wise of the ages are guided by what they know as soul or spirit; Love. The wise were and still are enlightened by this mystical inner energy that transcends the focus on the self, believing, seeing and living the oneness of all that is; the sisterhood and brotherhood of every person and every community, cultural and national group.