It's good to be reminded of this every so often.

There is of course no remedy, short of becoming as impoverished as those we now ignore. And that will inevitably happen, of course. If you track "wealth of nations" over the centuries, you cannot fail to notice that it shifts regularly, and inexorably, from geography to geography, region to region.

Anyone who believes we are as a nation immune from these shifts is, quite frankly, asleep.

So if it doesn't make a jot of difference in the long term, why should we change our selfish ways right now?

The author is quite right that the examples we are set, in both government and in our revered "captains of industry", are comprehensively appalling.

>>The federal government has doubled the overseas aid budget yet as Tim Costello points out we are still 19th out of 22 OECD countries<<

And as this Forum has noted before, when this particular spokesperson pulls down a $200k package for the privilege of berating his fellow-citizens for meanness, the problem clearly runs very deep indeed.

Anyone who believes we are as a nation immune from these shifts is, quite frankly, asleep.
Indeed and dreaming during the rest of the time.

Pericles, according to the Melbourne University pay scales http://www.unimelb.edu.au/ppp/docs/16.html#L311429 the author is on a salary package of $165000.

Melbourne University does not permit staff to hold down multiple positions, unlike other universities who think a lecturer is more important if they run multiple businesses whilst collecting a full time salary.

I can't see the value in subsidising each Geelong Grammar student more than a state school student. The private schools in Melbourne have so much money they are all engaged in massive rebuilding programs. Geelong Grammar is rebuilding Glamorgan, the Toorak campus with no building that hasn't been substantially renovated or built within the last 10 years. Meanwhile Brighton High School is falling into genteel disrepair as one can see in Summer Heights High.

I am sure that all our health care is of higher standard if all patients are covered by universal health care because doctors will treat the patients irrespective of their ability to pay. the advantage for those who can afford to pay regardless of government policy is that the medical practioners get more practice and thus are more experienced when they deal with their rich patients thus able to provide better care.

Education wise, the private schools will only attract students if they are better than the public system. So if you don't spent money on public education then private school education can be of a low standard and still attract students.

Rob Moodie has hit the nail on the head. Australia is a nation of generous people who are concerned for each other. However, they are not represented by governments which share that concern or generosity.

The litmus test is always how well a society chooses to care for the frail and disabled and those people who cannot look after themselves. This can be regarded as a true measure of the collective morality of a nation and while most of the countries mentioned in the article have come to terms well with this issue, Australia fails and fails again.

Have you seen those little grey-haired ladies out shopping with their middle-aged intellectually disabled sons or daughters? They are the lucky ones - many have adult children who are too disabled for them to take out. This is Australia's answer to the problem of what to do with its severely disabled citizens - leave them at home with their parents, even when those parents are in their seventies or eighties. The disabled person may not know a measure of independence that leaving home can bring, the parents can not know any experience of retirement after having cared for decades. And the crisis that happens when the support network breaks down and they can care no longer must be seen to be believed.

Humane societies view their disabled people, particularly those with a severe or profound dependent disability, as a shared responsibility and an obligation binding on the collective. In Australia, the care and accommodation of these people, (except for a tiny minority), is considered too costly for governments to bear. Yet I know that my fellow Australians would gladly sacrifice some of their tax cuts to see this issue addressed. They want to see services and infrastructure and a renewal of the spirit of the fair go.

Excellent Article. Notice it takes a real Health official to make the primary connections.

Equity is a moral that takes us back to sovereginity. It questions the emotional and intellectual state of our nation and test us beyond the twightlight.

Leadership rests on our nations capacity to solve real problems.

Can we do it?

A Free Press, the capacity of public expression, the recognition for the need to debate our diverse opinions is pressing.

The productivity of all there is and may be promotes a true need to revise our democracy.

What we are learning?

We have a dire need to look at the negative side of this historical prose.

While some claim we, the successive generations are better off then those previous, because we the common person(s) now have liberties once enjoyed only by the 18th Century aristocracies.... it appears regrettable, that the common ones (we) have adopted and repeat, their lapse misconceptions and carelessness ...

It is no whim. In the extreme, our desire for universal individualism has become a practice of self comformity to the extent that liberty, freedom threatens our social and universal cohsiveness.

Gone is our collective ability to civilise ourselves as humans, because we pander to an ill-informed populous that leads us to the precribed forms of tyranny lead by the impromptu majority.

Have we lost touch. Are we not a majority that fails to respect the expertise of minorities? The same minorities who symbolically reveal a difference by their historical struggles and who lead us (the human race) well, in the call for democracy?

In yester-years, it was about fair "representation" choosing good governance, wage equity and the meaning of wel-fare and science?

Today it is still a question of ethnicity and our afilliation on Indigenous Rights. Industrialisation has lead us to Climate Change and an even greater need to revise our Collective Security.

If we are truely a mass better off, then what have we learnt?

Why the double standards, the slander and abuse of our human capital when what we need is to capitalise on our own intelligence?

http://www.miacat.com
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ADMINISTRATIVE HEALTH REFORM through institutional change is the only way to counter-act a non-proficient, 17th century Health System.

Rural infrastructure and the emphasis on community engagement, to build "on the ground" capacity in urban AND rural AND remote area's is key, to problem solving the overlap and economic wastage present in this top heavy national institution.

The potential of the Allied movement,(SOCIAL CAPITALS) the inclusive value of Community Support Workers who provide the backup to Nurses, Doctors, Consumers, Teachers, Parents and official Carers and others need equity resources through infrastructure, to over come the community burnout, through Primary Health and proper health economic planning.

A new design is essential to develop the social cohesive indices, that undermine important Preventive Health outcomes, through Education, and this is impacting our Nations Civic Wellbeing.

These elements I see as the top issue that ought to stand above the time wasting spin we pork barrel.

ie: What's wrong with having a NO WRONG DOOR ECONOMIC HEALTH policy.

I am being honest when I tell you Howards plan is wrong. He is adding more cost onto the festering ulcer.

Howard's team does not appear to understand the problem of the administrations nor where the waste is occuring because he thinks he can just buy everything.

Howard does not understand the disatisfaction within the administrive culture. People are leaving Health for the same reason teachers don't want to go back to schools. Its about collabration, equity and intergrating the cultures you see.

The ALP is hopeful provided they listen to the States and the States reflect the problems occurring within their diverse State community.

I hope for a intergrated plan, a plan that involves the office of LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PLANNING.

We have had MOST the policies for years now, we just HAVE NOT IMPLEMENTED THEM for the problems across administrations.

http://www.miacat.com
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Hi billie, just a quick clarification.

When I said "when this particular spokesperson pulls down a $200k package for the privilege of berating his fellow-citizens for meanness" I was referring to the saintly Tim Costello, who never misses an opportunity to tell us how mean we are in our attitude to international poverty.

As of this time last year (the most recent World Vision Annual Report), he earned $178,287 plus $15,817 Super, a $194,104 total package, for the privilege of nagging us tightwads. And I wouldn't imagine WV prohibit him from holding multiple positions.

Hey, I'm sure he's a nice man and all that, but his organization is just another business, employing people to gather money for other people.

Something that charities used to do.