Letter
The vanishing elders
By far my biggest concern with “ the vanishing elders” is that none of our politicians have any experience with a world that is not dominated by neoliberal economic theory.
In the US, prior to the early ’70s, wage rises and growth in corporate profits grew at about the same rate. Wages had to rise to make sure that the workers could afford the goods that were produced.
The world then gradually discovered the credit card. This meant that workers could keep buying consumer goods without needing a pay rise. It was at this point in the early ’70s that wages largely stagnated and corporate growth accelerated.
The same pattern has been repeated around the world. This is why we get so nervous if interest rates go up – the growth in household debt means that far too many people live on the brink of penury.
The current crop of politicians cannot imagine a world where the top marginal tax rate was at the levels that enabled the government to adequately fund education, our health system and our social services – yet that was the world my generation experienced.
— John Tons from flinders university