Will the students rise up here? Only is the pubs shut down.

The comfortable lefties are really letting their revolutionary fantasies run wild, aren't they?

WHY WE HAVE UNEMPLOYMENT

"Economic rent" is the free lunch resulting from protection from competition -- e.g. through possession of finite resources such as land and minerals.

Taxes on economic rent don't feed into prices, but merely cut into the free lunch. But the recipients of the free lunch have accumulated big PR budgets with which they punish any politicians that propose to tax the free lunch. So governments tax production -- via income taxes, payroll taxes and value-added taxes. Taxes on production, unlike taxes on free lunches, are costs of production, which feed into prices, creating inflationary pressure and raising the "natural" rate of unemployment, i.e. the minimum unemployment rate that puts enough downward pressure on wages to give stable inflation.

The Reserve Bank sets interest rates to maintain unemployment at the "natural" rate. This rate is called "natural" in order to pretend that it isn't a problem. Sometimes it's even called the "full employment" rate, where "full employment" means enough unemployment to inflict enough pain on workers and jobseekers to keep inflation under control without taxing the free lunch.

The beneficiaries of the resulting cheap labour are not employers per se. The less employers need to pay their workers, the more they can bid up the rents and prices of commercial land. Hence the real beneficiaries are owners of commercial land. Employers that own their premises benefit as landowners, not as employers.

The "capitalist" system doesn't look after capitalists or employers. It looks after the recipients of the free lunch.

Perhaps it really is time to shut the universities, if this is what's coming out of them

Just as government inflation of the money supply causes financial bubbles, government inflation of the education supply causes graduate bubbles - and every bit as useless and anti-social. Government funding of tertiary education subsidises precisely those students who would not be induced to do a degree either for the financial or any other reward, a veritable premium on uselessness. But as the humanities and social sciences are drenched in Marxism it all works out for the better - from the governments point of view. It gets more useless idiots brainwashed into thinking the the state is the way to approach social perfection, it gets more dependent recruits for the class of "intellectuals" to preach that government can do no wrong, and more human cattle for its animal farm.

We really should make Universities independent of public funding. That way you get better education with less waste. Universities should get the same deal a businesses. Put on apprentices i.e. students & teach them to become revenue makers rather than mass revenue takers.
I say make the old way of pulling your on weight the new way again.

Hahahahaha

Classic comment Clownfish!

Will graduates revolt?

Difficult to say.

Theoretically they should revolt. Many are being sold a pup by getting a university degree, when they would be earning much more money and eventually living a better lifestyle and retiring earlier by getting a trade.

They are also inheriting a country with no culture because it is too multicultural, where there is less and less countryside or natural bush left, where nearly everything is now imported, where families are not deemed important and are being wiped out by feminist policy.

In effect, many graduates have no identity or sense of belonging, so theoretically they should revolt.

But the problem is, so many have been raised without any real identity, they don’t know what identity is.

Graduates in Australia won't revolt, as
1) we live in a democracy, not an autocratic dictatorship
2) street demonstrations are obsolete in modern western democracies; and
3) graduates are too busy working to pay back their HECS fees to be interested in revolting - most of them are pretty disengaged from politics.
No - the reformers in Australia are people like Get Up members - mostly well-off middle aged people that have less financial pressures and more leisure time for stuff like political activism...
...and by the way when is Tony Abbot going to give that surfing lesson to a refugee that Get Up purchased last year at a parliamentary charity fund raising auction?

I agree with you, Johnj.

A university degree does not bestow common sense or enlightenment, and it doesn't necessarily encourage political activism, either. The students who took considerable time off from their studies to blockade CHOGM when I was at uni - or, at least, those I knew - tended to be middle-of-the-road, uninspired students who drifted through courses (careful not to get too close to graduating) in an attempt to stall the real world from smacking them in their faces. Those who organised rallies tended to be the same. They were well-known around campus by the time I arrived, and were still drifting along when I left, four years later. They may have graduated by now, for all I know, but I would certainly say that their numbers are few enough that they don't represent the 'typical' graduate.

The rest of us have joined the world, worked hard to pay off our HECS and pose no greater risk of revolting than any other citizens.

One thing I'd like to mention before I go is that nobody I studied with (and still keep in touch with, anyway) believes that they were sold a lie. None of us were under the illusion that we were studying our way to prosperity. We just knew that, by studying something we were interested in, we would be likely to find employment in an area of our own interest. We knew that we would start at the bottom of the ladder and work our way up. We knew that our tradie friends would be buying investment properties before we bought our first homes. We made the choice because we wanted a particular lifestyle. Most of us have achieved that.

We made the choice because we wanted a particular lifestyle. Most of us have achieved that.
Otokonoko,
So how do you contribute to society if you are not in a trade or private enterprise ?

Individual, By implying that those who don't work in trades or private enterprise are not doing something worthwhile, I gather you are trying to start some kind of graduate/public servant bashing. I have worked for private enterprise (small and large), for Federal, State and Local government (at a professional not managerial level), and been self-employed. I can personally attest that the majority of public servants are committed, hard-working people who care about their work and the results of their work.
The work of government is crucial in a modern democratic society - for example, would you trust private enterprise -without any government oversight - to clean up toxic waste off sites about to be developed for housing? Most people are completely unaware of the plethora of issues that the different levels of government have to deal with every day...

Johnj,
Why do you twist what my post states ? I simply asked how Otokonoko thinks is contributing to society when not in constructive employment ? Pretty simple really ! No need to get your heckles up at a direct question ? Otokonoko will answer as he/she sees fit in his/her eyes.
To instantly hit the defensive button invariably does indicate defence rather than explanation, don't you think ?
Would I trust private enterprise to clean up toxic spills ? No ! Even less do I trust authorities which permit the risk taking with toxic materials in the first place.
When you say Government oversight, well that's exactly the problem we have. The plethora you mention is a plethora of incompetence. Can you tell us which Department addresses that & if it is being addressed can you tell us the outcome please ?

Hi individual,

I contribute in my role as a teacher. I don't make an immediate economic contribution, but I'd certainly say that I contribute to society.