Welfare Dependency Amongst Indigenous People

Michael Duffy has an interesting column in yesterday’s SMH on the welfare trap faced by many indigenous Australians. Duffy quotes a social worker who thinks that the typical welfare approach to Aboriginal people is ”essentially about rescuing people from competition and [from] taking responsibility for their own action”. The social worker argues that the effect of this is to “patronise and infantilise Aboriginal people”.

In this same area, Noal Pearson, a prominent activist and director of the Cape York Institute, has recently been given a weekly column in The Weekend Australian. He’s well worth reading.

Happiness and economics

Brucifer draws my attention to an article in The Economist* on happiness and economics. In typical Economist style, it’s easy to read and very enlightening. Some excerpts:

In general, the economic arbiters of taste recommend “experiences” over commodities, pastimes over knick-knacks, doing over having. Mr Frank thinks people should work shorter hours and commute shorter distances, even if that means living in smaller houses with cheaper grills.

Happiness, as measured by national surveys, has hardly changed over 50 years. The rich are generally happier than the poor, but rich countries do not get happier as they get richer. The Japanese are much better off now than in 1950, but the proportion who say they are “very happy” has not budged….

Lord Layard and Mr Frank both blame habit and rivalry for this stagnation of morale. People grow accustomed to what they have—however much of it there is. Moreover, having a lot of things is not enough if other people have more. A rising tide lifts all boats, but not all spirits.

For economists, this is radical stuff. They traditionally argue that people best serve themselves and the public by minding their own business. Indeed, this laissez-faire attitude is one reason Carlyle attacked them. Economics, he wrote, “reduces the duty of human governors to that of letting men alone”. He was afraid this radical idea would “dissever and destroy most existing institutions of society”.

But Lord Layard argues that we cannot help minding other people’s business, as well as our own. Doing well is not enough: we also want to do better than our peers. This status anxiety runs deep in our nature, he says.

*To all that don’t have much experience with The Economist, I highly recommend it. Its reporting of world news is simply second-to-none. If we had media of this quality covering Australian issues, our democracy would be a lot healthier. And since it’s published in the UK, you don’t get the US bias of magazines like Time.

Contact Details

We’ve established an email account that people can use to send us suggestions, comments, questions etc. The address is reedsmootsmates AT yahoo.com.au.

Happy Holidays and Merry CHRISTMAS

Hey all, just to let you know I’ll be away until the 2nd of Jan though I’m sure Echo will still be around to post.

Have a safe and happy holidays and a Merry Christmas (not XMAS nothing infuriates me more).  Be sure to spend some time to remember those less fortunate than ourselves these holidays and perhaps we can all resolve to do a bit better in the new year with regards to helping others both Physically and Spiritually.

Thanks again for joining us here on the blog. It’s been interesting and thought provoking. 2007 will be a busy year no doubt, so get your fingers ready….

Acceptable and Unacceptable Christians

Gerard Henderson had a fantastic opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday. The nub of his thesis is that Christians who speak publicly about issues of ‘public morality’ (eg. poverty, Iraq war) are lauded, while those who speak publicly about ‘private morality’ (eg. abortion, gay marriage) are denigrated. An example of the former is the Revered Tim Costello, while the prime example of the latter is Tony Abbott.  Henderson concludes: 

In a democratic society Christians should be just as entitled to state their views on private morality as are Christians who state their positions on public morality. Those who refuse to recognise this are engaging in the new sectarianism.

I think Henderson makes a great point.  It’s disgraceful how Christians like Abbott are treated by the media and other politicians, all because they’re uncompromising on traditional, Christian values.

The Coming Recession

The title of this post isn’t any kind of forecast – more a reflection that inevitably there will be another recession. Below we have a guest post from Mitt’s Mate, who’s been reading and thinking about the topic. 

I was reading the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) today and noticed this article by Ross Gittins. The introductory paragraph is: “I’ve always hoped the next recession, when it comes, will be a mild one. But Ian Macfarlane, recently retired Reserve Bank governor, thinks it will be deeper than last time because households are more financially exposed than ever before.” 

It got me thinking about the level of debt and financial preparedness by members in Australia. Taking Ian Macfarlane’s comments a step further (assuming he is correct) and I wonder how members, in fact all people, would react to a prolonged period of financial market weakness. 

Australia hasn’t experienced a significant downturn in our economy or financial markets for many, many years. Sure, we have had the small speed hump but nothing like you might find in history. Out current level of debt seems fine when property prices are holding, but take away the supportive environment of property prices, and even a strong job market, and it may be another story. 

As I write this my mind goes back to President Hinckley’s speech of some years ago where he likened the dream of Pharaoh interpreted by Joseph (think fatted cows) to our day and asked if we were prepared financially. I think it will require more than 12 months of wheat and long life milk!

[See the bottom right hand graph on page 3 of this RBA chartpack for an illustration of the debt issue Mitt's Mate is referring to - echo] 

Do Sanctions work?

As someone who is highly interested in the Human/Civil rights movements (international and domestic), I consistently read calls from non-government and government agencies for the push for economic sanctions against Nation-states that abuse their students. But I wonder if this is the answer to a degree. Who suffers more when the international community decides to cut off countries to starve them into treating their civilians better.

The targetting of foreign investment by some previous sanctions has left some countries in the past desolate. Burma (Myanmar) is one classic example of this. The recent calls for similar sanctions for the war torn and strive driven country of Sudan could lead to furthur problems in the country.

The answer I think perhaps is to not starve the civilians, but rather starve the leaders. Like the linked article suggests, targeted individual sanctions perhaps may be the better option. BUT, does this work and does it happen?

What other answers could there be? Perhaps if George W.Bush was so hell bent of ridding the world of ‘evil dictators’ like Saddam, we would see the US invading Zimbabwe, Burma, Sudan and other degerative regimes. But violence only makes matters worse, as far as we can see from Iraq. So do we turn a blind eye and continue trading?

Perhaps a much larger policy debate than what we are used to on this blog, but one to consider nonetheless. As our leaders make decisions on trading or not trading with nations like this, where do we stand….

Home Teaching

Below is a guest post from Brucifer.

Something that has concerned me over the years is men who hold temple recommends and do not do their home teaching. 

Having served twice now as an elder’s quorum president, it was great to see the good work being done in the quorum, but unfortunately it was by far too few of the brethren.  My understanding of being a teacher or higher in the Aaronic priesthood or holding the Melchizedek priesthood is that we are covenant-bound to perform this sacred duty of home teaching. My logic follows if you are not fulfilling (or doing your best effort at least) these priesthood duties, then your priesthood leaders should seriously consider withholding the blessings of the temple until the situation is addressed. [Note I’m not lobbying for a change in Church policy, simply me expressing my train of thought.] 

I am aware that the Church is rolling out its new handbook of instructions, so I am unaware if there is anything said about this issue in the new handbook. Fellow bloggers, your thoughts?

A Mormon for the Senate?

I’ve just discovered that a guy who used to be in my ward is standing as an independent for the Senate at the next federal election. Apparently he recently stood for a mayoral election in South Australia, where he lives now, but was unsuccessful. He has a blog, and a website. I don’t necessarily agree with all his policies, but I think it’s great that a Mormon is putting his hand up and having a go, so have a look at his sites if you’ve got the time.

Prisoners

Data released today by the ABS indicate that Australia has around 25,000 prisoners. In contrast, the US has over 2 million prisoners, more than 80 times as many. Sure, the US has a larger population than Australia, but it’s not 80 times larger. It’s more like 14 times larger. That suggests that the average American is around 6 times more likely to be in prison than the average Australian.

Some other interesting points:

- 24% of prisoners are indigenous;

- 7% are women; and

- 57% had been in prison previously.