“ how much inequality can a community accept without much unhappiness”.

It seems to me that the answer to that is now 'none' in Australian society. Most Australians have gone right over the edge with what everyone, irrespective of circumstances or effort, is 'entitled' to. They cannot grasp that there is no such thing as equality in their definition of he word. They see someone with something they do hot have, and they want it too; no thought is given to what that 'lucky' person had to do to get whatever the object of their envy is.

The latest whinge is the cost of housing and rent. Last night on TV: one single mother with a disabled son paying $130 a week for public housing; another paying $275 a week for a bedroom home. Alas, alack. Not good enough! What the hell do they want?

Well, folks, call it inequality if you wish, but it is here to stay, and it's going to get worse. Governments have spent all our money, and they are going deeper into debt. If you really think that Australia is an unequal society, you ain't seen nothing yet.

The real problem isn't inequality of wealth, it's disparity in standard of living.

I have no interest in what others may have, only that I can put together enough to have what I want. A huge fortune does not give any wisdom in how to most enjoy it.

In the late 60s I drove a GT B Ferrari in the Surfers Paradise 6 hour sports car race. It was, & still is one of the most beautiful cars ever built. Beautiful to look at, & beautiful to sit in. However it was a bloody awful thing to drive. It was fast enough to win it's class, but I was not upset that I was not asked to drive it again.

A few years ago I heard it had been sold for $1.6 million. I hoped the new owner only wanted to look at it, or impress his neighbours, rather than drive the thing.

A friend found it hard to understand that I would not swap my $20,000 Triumph for the GT B. My Triumph may not impress the neighbours, but is a much nicer thing to drive. I am not the least bit jealous of the man with his 1.6 million car, & I hope he enjoys it as much as I do my old Triumph.

We are so lucky that most of us can enjoy some of the good things in life if we cut our cloth sensibly. That we may not be able to enjoy the most expensive is of no importance at all.

I think a better question and germane, is when is enough enough? And given it is often obscenely exceeded, creates comparative and or gender inequality?

When I was a young man a CEO's salary seldom exceeded 30 multiplies of that of the lowest paid worker! The excuse that they are dealing with larger numbers, just doesn't fly, given every employee contributes to expanded company results.

Nor should a department heads be paid more than the PM. Who given he outranks the lot, should be the template which justifies/regulates, what others are paid?

While not everyone can be equal, the starting place, education, ought to be!

Yes, university numbers are up, so is the population and what was fair and reasonable for an earlier generation ought to be the guide or template for all who follow.

What was good for the goose is fare for the gander. Making it, fairness and equity the guiding paradigm, is only as difficult as getting the tax (capital) and energy management model right.

The first economic pillar, energy, could be so much more affordable, and all that spins off that if we were guided solely by pragmatism and future vision?

Ditto tax and the massive avoidance that is the accepted norm of today and overseen by toothless tigers and pollies more concerned with other issues or simple self interest.

If we can't afford to be evenhanded and intrinsically fair? Then ring in intelligent reform until we can. And in so doing, unleashing massive economic growth!

That said, Bill Shorten, who I might have once admired, sneered across the floor, with, you are not us. And if either John Curtain or Ben Chiefly were alive and there, they would likely respond, neither are you and that conservative cabal caterwauling behind you!

I commend the PM for having a go! And dismiss this verbiage as just ideological drivel.

In conclusion let me add, the only thing we have absolute control over is the thoughts we entertain and through them all our attitudes. Think, there is great power and dream realization there!
Alan B.

if equality means having lazy getup goons displaying contempt for people who have actually worked for a living then it is a good thing. What a pathetically indulgent, entitlement generation we have raised who feed on envy politics. Houses are still very affordable in Regions, there is plenty of fruit to pick and no one should have to pay for you to go and get dumbed down at university. I wonder how many of the entitlement generation have ever got off their cruise ships and looked at poverty. Surely that would shut them up. Then again I still hear people sucking on the public purse complaining.

How i wish this could be achieve, a world where every one would be equal to one another and no one should be able to use power or money on the common ones any more.