David G

Whilst I agree with most of your post, I do believe there is a case for reward for incentive and / or initiative. For example I have no issue with self-made zillionaires like Richard Branson making mega-squillions because (a) he has provided a very tangible benefit to customers (b) he hasn't as far as I'm aware, ripped off anyone, least of all his employees and (c) from what I've seen of him in person he doesn't carry on like money is the great god that so many squillionaires do.

I do however put snouts (lawyers / barristers, banksters, finance CEOs, insurance CEOs, energy company CEOs, local authority CEOs & for that matter the vast majority of public company CEOs in a totally different category. Insatiable money-grubbers is far too kind a description for these bottom-feeding slimeballs. As you so rightly note, there needs to be a quantum move away from the prevailing 'if greed is good then avarice is better'

praxidice,
Ditto ! like the CEO & EO's of a council of 7000 constituents on 300 G + benefits & 200 G + benefits and the show is being run into the ground faster than if they tried to run it into the ground deliberately.
Most Govt Departments have huge overheads in remote area to attract bureaucrats no-one wants because they never leave anything except a dysfunctional show, they're the ones that need reigning in, they cost us too much in money & too much in social dysfunction.

avarice
praxidice,
Cheers for making me aware of that word, it really sums up our bureaucrats perfectly.

individual

I believe avarice dates from old French circa 1250 - 1300 and was derived from the latin avaritia. The concept of all-consuming greed to the point of rapaciousness is ancient, it was for example mentioned in the Ten Commandments (ancient hebrew word was chamad, translated covet) some five thousand years back but the roots are probably much older. It was also described as one of the Seven Deadly Sins by Pope Gregory around the sixth century. Lawyers have commonly been the subject and given the number of those leeches in contemporary politics, its hardly surprising the traits carried over.

I put this comment here because there is no article dealing with the most important issue in Australia: the leadership, or lack thereof, of the current Government!

Surely Graham, there is a need to have an open thread where we, your readers and commenters, can talk or make points about what is relevant to the Australian scene rather than relying on the fact that someone has dealt with it.

Here we have the situation regarding Gillard where she puts her imagined importance ahead of that of her party and the country. No current article deals with this!

Let's put OLO on the map! Give your readers the opportunity to comment on current affairs rather than what articles your gaggle of contributors happen to think is important!