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The Politics of Affluence

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The Politics of Affluence The politics of affluence The Institute’s recent paper on ‘the rise of the middle-class battler’ (Discussion Paper No. 49) appears to have struck a powerful chord in the community. Clive Hamilton, the report’s author, comments on the political implications of ‘imagined hardship’. No. 33 December 2002 A recent Newspoll survey, statement that they cannot afford to buy commissioned by the Institute, reveals everything they really need. that 62 per cent of Australians believe that they cannot afford to buy The politics of affluence everything they really need. When we The proportion of ‘suf- Clive Hamilton consider that Australia is one of the fering rich’ in Australia is world’s richest countries, and that even higher than in the Who should pay for mater- Australians today have incomes three USA, widely regarded as nity leave? times higher than in 1950, it is the nation most obsessed remarkable that such a high proportion Natasha Stott Despoja with money. feel their incomes are inadequate. The Coalition’s Claytons health policy It is even more remarkable that almost Richard Denniss half (46 per cent) of the richest In other words, a fifth of the poorest households in Australia (with incomes households say that they do not have Letter to a farmer over $70,000 a year) say they cannot afford difficulties affording everything they Clive Hamilton to buy everything they really need. The really need, suggesting that they have proportion of ‘suffering rich’ in some money left over for ‘luxuries’. This Deep cuts in greenhouse Australia is even higher than in the USA, is consistent with anecdotal evidence that gases widely regarded as the nation most some older people living entirely on the Clive Hamilton obsessed with money. pension report that they get along just fine. Future population dilem- The survey also asked respondents mas whether they ‘spend nearly all of their The survey results confirm something Barney Foran money on the basic necessities of life’. obvious that we frequently forget: above Across the population, 56 per cent of some fairly low threshold, feelings of The exhausted Australian? respondents agreed. More than a quarter deprivation are conditioned by Barbara Pocock of the wealthiest households in expectations and attitudes rather than Australia believe that they spend nearly real material circumstances. Institute notes all of their money on the basic necessities of life, a belief shared by The political implications of the around 40 per cent of those on incomes Institute’s research are far-reaching. Baby of $50,000 to $69,000. boomers today are financially three times better off than their parents and perhaps The responses of some of the lowest five times better off than their income households are equally grandparents at the same age. But pick suggestive. Surprisingly, among the up any newspaper or listen to any lowest income group (with annual politician and you would conclude that incomes of less than $20,000) 21 per average Australians cannot make ends cent of Australians disagreed with the meet. THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE The commentators are reflecting back the sense of material deprivation felt by the great majority of Australians, House and household size, including the richest. Despite the fact Australia, 1955-2000 that we live in an era of unprecedented abundance, the broad mass of middle- 4 class Australians believe that their incomes are insufficient to provide for 3 House size their needs. 2 (100 m2) The problem is not inadequate incomes No. per but inflated needs. This new ‘middle- 1 household class battler’ syndrome has transformed 0 Australia’s political culture. Politicians tell 1955 1970 1985 2000 us ad nauseam that ‘people are doing it tough out there’ and ‘families are struggling’, validating the self-pity of people who are well off by any standard. to shift resources from public schools 220 square metres, double that of the and hospitals to private ones. 1950s, and it must be filled with furniture, carpets, appliances and The problem is not inad- The emphasis on the tribulations of the ensuites, with retail sales of these goods equate incomes but in- middle classes not only trivializes the booming. flated needs. concerns of those facing real hardship but reinforces their obsession with their own financial circumstances. The little Aussie battler has turned into the great John Howard has been more adept than The rise of the middle-class battler over Australian whinger. others at fanning the embers of the last 10-15 years has coincided with complaint. The manufactured privations the outbreak of ‘luxury fever’. In the of ‘Howard’s battlers’ gave the Coalition 1980s attitudes to consumption and victory in the 2001 election. material acquisition underwent a Australian households are accumulating transformation, reflected in booming so much ‘stuff’ that even bigger houses All of this is bad news for the ten per sales of luxury travel, luxury cars, and garages can’t cope, and a cent or so of Australians who are cosmetic surgery, holiday homes and burgeoning self-storage industry has genuinely struggling. Political parties can professional quality home appliances. grown to accommodate it. There are now see more advantage in pandering to the nearly 1000 self-storage facilities around imagined woes of the middle classes Above all, houses have become bigger the country. than the real distress of the poor. So and more opulent. People have been they cut taxes on the well-off , increase building bigger houses at the same time Although incomes have never been middle-class welfare and use the as the average size of families has been higher, the desired standard of living complaints of the wealthy as an excuse shrinking. The average new house is over of the average household is now so far above the level actual incomes can provide that people feel a gnawing sense Proportions who agree. that they cannot of deprivation. The little Aussie battler afford to buy everything they really need, has turned into the great Australian by income group (%) whinger. Yet when asked to reflect on the state of our society, a large proportion of $70000 plus Australians believe that we place too much emphasis on money and material $60000-$69999 goods and neglect the things that really $50000-$59999 matter. $40000-$49999 $30000-$39999 In response to another question in the Institute’s Newspoll survey, 83 per cent $20000-$29999 agreed that Australian society is too <$20,000 materialistic, with too much emphasis 30 40 50 60 70 80 on money and not enough on the continued page 4 2 THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE Who should pay for maternity leave? In the last Institute newsletter, Bruce Chapman argued for a HECS-style system of loans for maternity leave. His scheme includes a public subsidy component, but above that level payments to mothers would take the form of loans that would begin to be repaid when they returned to the workforce and their incomes reached a certain threshold. Here, Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja puts the alternative. The momentum for paid maternity indirect discrimination associated with Already, it is common for women to leave in Australia continues to grow motherhood and caring. Paid maternity carry the burden of a HECS debt well with employers, unions, women’s and leave is a basic and essential measure after their male contemporaries have community organisations, and 75% of which will go some way to addressing repaid their debt. This is partly due to Australians supporting such a scheme. this discrimination. the ongoing discrepancy between male The notion that the debate is ‘bogged and female salaries, but also because down over who should pay’ fails to Any system of paid maternity leave women are more likely to spend periods recognise that the bulk of supporters funded entirely by employers will simply of time outside the paid workforce favour a government-funded model perpetuate the discrimination against caring for small children. with a supplementary role for women and the inequities among them. employers. It is Government inaction If such a scheme were mandatory, A HECS scheme for paid maternity leave that is delaying the introduction of a employers have made it clear that they would simply add to the burden of debt national scheme. are likely to favour male applicants for faced by many women. They will have positions to avoid potential liability for multiple or much larger debts which paid maternity leave. will take longer to repay. Paid maternity leave is both economically and On the other hand, a voluntary system Professor Chapman’s suggestion that a socially beneficial to the of paid maternity leave will be fraught paid maternity leave debt could be community, and an im- with inconsistency. Already, we are seeing recorded against the woman’s partner if portant anti-discrimina- inequities develop along industry and he or she has a higher salary, would go sector lines, with women in larger some way to addressing this problem, tion measure. companies and the public sector being but it assumes that the woman has a more likely to have access to paid partner and will have one until such maternity leave, while women in time as the debt is fully repaid. This will This is not a simple stand-off between feminised industries and small business simply not be the case for many women. a Government that wants employers to are less likely to. meet the costs of paid maternity leave and employers who want the The more worrying aspect of these A HECS scheme for paid Government to meet these costs – it is trends is that women on lower incomes, maternity leave would a case of the Government failing to whose partners also tend to be on lower simply add to the burden accept a fundamental social incomes, frequently miss out on paid responsibility.
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