Wednesday’s news and music blog posts. The Prime Minister has now announced that the federal election will be held on 21 May 2022. Given how depressing the political situation is, I think I’ll focus on the football game that Saturday, not the election. They should only allow one week of campaigning, as 3 days out of the current 6-week campaign is already deeply frustrating and strengthening Australian voters, especially those progressive ones being caught – Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea – Speaking of federal elections. Both political parties are pleased that government policies have deliberately forced more than 550,000 Australians (and their families) to live in abject poverty. Many believe Australia’s Labor Party, whose leaders can’t even tell the media what the actual unemployment rate is this week, may deliver on their earlier promise to review the unemployment benefit system and increase payments accordingly. Given the voices of the welfare lobby, the OECD, the business lobby (and yours truly) have been calling for the federal government to end forced poverty. Overnight, Labour showed their re-election eligibility. No matter what they say in the next few weeks, the fact that they have given up any intention of raising unemployment benefits or engaging in any job creation disqualifies them from serving. I hope they lose. But then I hope other rotten conservatives lose. A set of impossible hopes. Devil and deep blue sea. Speaking of devils, we can finish listening to “The Old Devil’s Moon” and calm down.
Perhaps, as this Australian government ad tells us, the choice really is:
However, if you vote otherwise, you may be rewarded – Cycling neoliberals… (July 11, 2012).
Demons and the Deep Blue Sea! I told you.
Anyway, yesterday (April 12, 2022) shadow assistant treasurer, Harvard educated or should I say educated Andrew Leigh, who thinks MMT is a joke, he was on the Australian Council A sponsored election forum said Social Services would not seek to boost unemployment benefits if Labour wins on May 21, nor will it honour its earlier promise to investigate the welfare system.
More Labour MPs came out today confirming that view, citing “budgetary” pressure to reduce debt.
The real shadow treasury secretary has been talking about “budget repair” and excessive federal debt for years.
This is the so-called leadership of the Workers’ Party.
Their previous promise in the last federal election to investigate if they won (and they lost again!) was a ruthless move to avoid having to raise welfare levels.
Now, they’ve even withdrawn that level of commitment.
At the same time, they continue to support the current conservative government’s tax cuts, which will greatly benefit high earners.
Why is this important?
Well, one would think that any future government would not support a thoughtful policy aimed at ensuring that a large number of the country’s citizens are forced to live in abject poverty.
That’s adults and their children.
But how is it possible for a political group that aspires to represent the working class without committing to eliminating mass unemployment or ensuring that those who have lost their jobs due to poorly designed fiscal policies can live above the poverty line?
Not being able to choose is the word.
Remember the last time Labor was in power, the then Homes Minister defended the government’s refusal to increase unemployment benefits, claiming she could live on the then $35 a day.
When the outrageous comment drew public condemnation, her office removed that portion of the interview from the official transcript (source).
you can start Melbourne College.
Their work on this issue dates back to the early 1970s, when the institute was called the Institute of Applied Economics and Society (University of Melbourne) and was led by the great economist Ronald Henderson, who pioneered the development of poverty line estimates and The famous poverty survey was conducted and the first estimates for the December 1973 quarter were released.
The graph below shows the evolution of the Single Unemployment Benefit and Single Unemployment Poverty Line from 1973 to the March 2022 quarter.
the fact is:
1. The single unemployment benefit is $45.91 a day, well below any reasonable estimate of the Australian poverty line ($79.29 a day for a single).
2. The single unemployment benefit is now below the poverty line of $A233.69 per week.
3. Unemployment benefits for married couples are currently $83.61 per day, while the corresponding poverty line is set at $112.32 per day.
4. Whether you are single or a couple, once you have paid for accommodation, there is not much left to earn from unemployment benefits. There is a severe shortage of social housing (over 450,000 units) as the government refuses to invest in the pursuit of a fiscal surplus.
Note that the divergence between unemployment benefits and the poverty line began in the early 1980s, when neoliberal slogans about fiscal surpluses really took hold in Australia.
This deviation started around 1981-82, when the Australian economy went through a major recession (then the worst since the Great Depression).
With the fiscal deficit rising through automatic stabilizers, the conservative governments of the time were under intense political pressure, and instead of meeting the challenge of the recession by aggressively trying to stimulate aggregate demand, they tried to claim that fiscal austerity was the way forward.
The generosity that undermines unemployment benefits is one manifestation of this frenzy. They stepped down in 1983 and the new Labour government set out to provide some relief to jobless recipients. It is still a fact that single unemployment benefits are close to (slightly below) the poverty line.
The next severe recession was worse than the one in 1982 and occurred under the same Labour government in 1991-92, and they responded poorly to cyclical downturns. By then, they were completely obsessed with running a fiscal surplus, failing to stimulate the economy quickly enough to prevent a serious deterioration in the labor market.
But from the point of view of unemployment benefits recipients, their response to the recession has been staggering. As you can see from the chart, the significant divergence between single adult unemployment benefits and the estimated poverty line began during this recession and has not been resolved since.
There is talk on both sides of politics that increasing benefit payments would “cost billions of dollars” and jeopardize the fiscal surplus target.
So if you’re an Australian voter, consider this on 21 May 2022.
Whatever Labour should promise – they should prioritise lifting this group of citizens out of poverty.
According to the Global Wealth Report, Australia has consistently been at or near the top of the global wealth rankings.
However, government policies force at least 550,000 individuals and their families to live in extreme poverty.
Something is wrong.
Previous related blog posts
I’ve been writing about the state of poverty that the government deliberately imposes on the unemployed – see the following blog post:
1. Why are we so mean to the unemployed? (September 23, 2009).
2. The Dilemma of the Unemployed – Growth and Recession (November 16, 2010).
3. Our pathological meanness to the unemployed is just bad economics (February 15, 2012).
4. Fat cat bankers want to make the unemployed even more desperate (23 Aug 2012).
5. The Indecent Inconsistency of Neoliberals (30 April 2013).
6. Framing Issues – Unemployed and Farmers (August 7, 2018).
7. Australia’s ‘progressive’ groups captured by neoliberal ideology (September 18, 2018).
8. Australia’s Labor Party is still at the stage of denying neoliberalism (December 18, 2018).
9. Australia’s adult unemployment benefits should increase by $200 a week immediately (August 1, 2019).
Music – Barney Kessel
Here’s what I’ve been listening to this morning at work.
Here’s the classic Burton Lane song — old devil moon – Composed for the 1947 musical – Finian’s Rainbow.
Many people cover the song with lyrics and instruments.
In general, I don’t like movie songs (major exceptions), but this treatment of the American ace guitarist – Barney Kessel –
This is on his 1973 album – only friends – This is a live recording of a concert in Sweden on September 27, 1973.
Barney Kessel is accompanied by two top Swedish jazz players on this album:
1. Pere Hurten – drum.
2. Stuart Notting – Double bass (died 11 October 2000).
There are some great chord playing, especially his use of inversions and triads, making this album worth listening to.
Enough for today!
(c) Copyright 2022 William Mitchell. all rights reserved.
