Give & Take

When I and my family first arrived in Australia we were informed (jokingly, I think) that Australians voted Labor to improve social benefits and Liberal to restore the budget once labor had exhausted the necessary handouts. I laughed at the simplistic analysis yet now ponder at the half-truths hidden therein. Consider the fear mongering dumped on the public head re: the global financial 'crisis' and the dubious financial 'benefits' which have resulted. The amount spent versus the number of jobs saved has been calculated at some staggering sum akin to 500,000 dollars per job 'saved'. Given the almost unbelievable malfunctions which occured in the administration of these financial 'stimuli' it appears that almost any benefits have been solely confined to imports and the public sector and for those outside of those sectors little has changed except that we are now faced with a massive public debt.
Perhaps the real eye opener has been in the exposure what both the Rudd and Gillard governments have become justifiably (in)famous for, that is; SPIN.
Steven Kate  in his article The economic mess Australia is in  says: "The stimulus was always a matter of making sure that the data came out OK rather than actually generating a recovery of any worth. The fantastic negative consequences of the GFC as prognosticated by Treasury turned out to be wildly pessimistic so that, in the end, when unemployment rose from just under four percent to just under six percent it looked better than the forecasts that had existed a few months before.

The real damage about this whole exercise  is not so much the creation of crippling debt, as terrible as that is, but a giant leap forward in a very real 'worldview' battle being waged, which is not over who spends and who saves, as much as it is in the creation of a dependent mindset (and lifestyle) that expects the government to do everything for the citizen and consequently blames the government for everything that goes wrong. For those possessed of a totalitarian mindset no public position could be better.
The government blame-game was one of the first things we noticed when arriving in this country.
At first we were amazed at all the benefits and quite enjoyed the generosity of the 'lucky' country and for that I both thank and applaud the effective administration of the many taxes. However I am beginning to view this largess with a more jaundiced eye after 13 years and I have to wonder how this existing (and growing) dependence on government handouts is affecting the long tern viability of the average citizens ability to cope independently of government assistance. Are we creating a paternalistic culture?
Just thinking, only asking, herewith inviting argument!!!!!!!!!!!