Fred Argy questions the commonly held belief that we can increase GDP by allowing businesses to increase profit.

In effect the government is shooting the messenger when it punishes the unemployed

1. fudging the unemployment statistics makes those who are working feel righteous and lowers the self esteem of long term unemployed. 'What's wrong with you, why can't you get a job, everyone else is working?'

2. On ABC 774 this morning a single mum was told that she would have to do 15 hours employment under mutual obligation. She is a trained teacher who does casual relief teaching. She was told to work for 15 hours a week for 52 weeks of the year. Single mothers on mutual obligation can't take a holiday, so their kids are unsupervised during school holidays.

3. Since 1992 the Victorian government has casualised teachers. They work flat out in term time but are not paid holiday pay. Most casual teachers get a lot of work in winter and very little work in Occtober and November. Why has it become acceptable for state governments to pay wages that are less than liveable? Why is it acceptable to find casual teachers applying for the dole in school holidays.

4. its now up to the worker to move to find work and to pay for their training for a job that may have disappeared by the time they finish. Tough Titty you say, but when all types of skilled or trained workers play this kind of roulette we very quickly reduce to a nation of salesmen.

5. We should dispute whether income inequality increases the nation's GDP. I believe that it doesn't.

I waded into Fred Argy's presentation stoicly, expecting the usual economist's dichotomy designed to prove he or she is still alive; as is the discipline thus subscribed to. Hey! Not So. This is a very fair global sample analysis with meaningful results. Fred is on the ball and this is clearly appreciated by Billie, who's comments follow swiftly. Why arn't the Henry Thorntons of this world seeing the same picture? Fred and Billie might enjoy, if that is the right word, stats secured from my own surveys on that delightful zone of prosperity, the Sunshine Coast:unemployed 20%. Incomes: under $15Kpa 54%; under $29Kpa 68%. Meanwhile, every four days, another desperate farmer tops himself. This is not mere economic misinterpretation; it is the ideological cruelty of elitism.

This kind of analysis is welcome. But I remain sceptical about whether all the really relevant parameters enter the equation of analysis. I hope those who govern us come to read and study this stuff, but I hope that they don't think there is a neat formula that can be extracted from comparisons of gross parameters and then applied to our situation. Comparisons between national economies are interesting. But there are many uncontrolled variables. Comparison within an economy over a period of time offers better control over other variables. Fred, could you do the same analysis for Australia retrospectively, say for 1950, 1960, 70, 80, 90, and 2000 - or any array of periods that fit variations in policy.

Tony Ryan:

Welcome to John Howard's world of economic rationalism !

Remember, you get the politicians you deserve.

Very good article. It actually says quite a lot for Graham and the Online Opinion people that they would publish it. This certainly isn't the line that is being pushed by the politicians and the mainstream media.

Inequality is taking place on a world scale as the top 2 percent now own 50percent of the worlds wealth. At one pole of society is the growing, yes increasing accumulation of wealth and at the other the growing poverty. Since the early 1980's (about 1982) the CEO's have had 400 very generous pay rises whilst workers have had no genuine pay rises - repeat no genuine pay rises. In 1985 the ALP/ACTU accord put the boot further into workers taking wage indexation off them. This was the greatest transformation of wealth this whole century from the pockets of workers into the pockets of the banks, big landlords, big oil, and the bosses. At the same time the treacherous ALP/ACTU very actively pursued the casualization and restructuring of the workforce in order to boost the exploitation rate and lower wages.