hink of it all - of the life that is! Study your friends and foes!
Study the past! And answer this: "Are these times better than those?" The life-long quarrel, the paltry spite, the sting of your poisoned pride! No matter who fell it were better to fight as they did when the world was wide.
The religion of quantity over quality
The need to maximise the growth of the economy seems to be perceived as a self-evident truth in Australia. We don't just want a dynamic and well-oiled economy, we want one that is at all times getting bigger and bigger. At the 2020 summit held earlier this year, 1000 of our best and brightest got together to discuss the nation's future. A key topic was how to 'maximise economy growth'. Ross Gittens from The Age reports."[One] of the summit's blinding insights was that "Australia should be the best place in the world to live and do business" which would require "urgent action to increase economic capacity".
::View Article::
It's obviously being assumed here that the size of the economy and amount of economic activity determines whether a certain place is the best one in which to live.
Is this true?
"What we are looking at here is a period when immigration numbers have been really very high and population growth been quite sharp. Like in 2002 the population grew by 237,000. In 2007 it grew by 332,000."
"So it has really grown quite fast and that is fast enough for people to actually see the effects of it. Especially in pressure points like Sydney and Melbourne, where most of the migrants go."
"What happens is that people in Sydney are moving out at a much higher rate than they are from Melbourne and the reason for that is the high cost of housing as far as we can see," she said.
"It is quite unusual that opposition to the immigration intake should rise during a period that was economically rosy, because you have to remember the people responded to this in late November and early December last year."
::View Article::
Far from indicating that the worship of economic growth is making us happier one symptom of this worship, booming immigration, is making us move due to population congestion and housing shortages.
Another way we can maximise economic growth is by working more again. But is does this represent a higher quality of life?
"Then there's the changed attitude to leisure. For 100 years to the beginning of the 1980s, falling working hours - from the 44-hour week to the 38-hour week - were regarded as a sign of social progress. We were happy to take part of our greater productivity in higher incomes and part in more leisure. Yet all that has changed."
::View Article::
We are becoming more economically productive due to better technology and production methods which is great, but instead of using this as an opportunity to enjoy non-working life a bit more we're using the surplus in time and money to propel production further. But for what? Is the economy simply a means to an end or is it everything?
We're even extending the strange quantity over quality mindset into the realm of the arts:
"Even the summit's creativity stream fell into the economy trap: "We will aim to double cultural output by 2020," it concluded, as if the quantity of artistic product trumps its ability to stir our passions or let us see into the human condition. The Government was urged to "recognise the centrality of the arts and creativity to the whole economy"."
::View Article::
Will the arts now have to be justified in terms of their contribution to growing the economy? Will we axe them if they are not 'efficient' enough?
No comments