Workchoices Who's to Blame?

You are. The Australian voter. You've had a freaking decade long economic boom. Instead of demanding your fair share and lining your nest, you loaded yourselves with debt so you could use the bank's money to live your dream, buy your McMansion, watch big brother and convince yourselves you'd achieved the lifestyle. At every turn you rejected leaders who said it was time to give you back more than a sandwich and coke tax cut. At every election you refused to even put pressure on John Howard to return some of the bounty you created to you. Every time you returned bigger and bigger majorities to the people who were moving the profits of your labour further from your grasp.

You chose low interest rates instead of a fair work place, the hunt for Osama in Iraq instead of national infrastructure, billion dollar boondoggle fighters instead of hospitals, tax cuts instead of Medicare. All the while you voted to make rich men richer while your salaries didn't move. You didn't notice. Look at the low low interest rates! I'm going to buy myself some new sunnies! Maybe you just wanted to make sure the going would still be good when you got to that next tax bracket that never quite seemed to materialise.

Now, now it's nearly over. Nothing good lasts forever, economies have to cool, times change. Suddenly your choices are an old John Howard and a young John Howard. You've trained them both well. They hold you in contempt because they know you never vote in your interests. They know you'll chase whatever shiny bauble the corporate press dangle in front of you, or run from whatever bogeyman they invent. So the game begins, to sell you for the best price. It doesn't matter much who wins, they're both on the same side and it's not yours. Before you know, it'll be time for downsizing, 'changing economic conditions'. Sacrifices will have to be made, always by you. Bills will have to be paid. The party will be over and you'll have nothing to show for it.