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The Forum > Article Comments > In praise of idleness > Comments

In praise of idleness : Comments

By Harry Throssell, published 5/6/2008

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd seems to have forgotten his social and economic history and the philosophy of work and leisure.

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Possibly, Rudd is a believer in a soul-deadening puritanical Christianity. One struggles through this vale of tears with an eye on the afterlife in which one will be rewarded for not having lived the real one.
Posted by david f, Thursday, 5 June 2008 10:50:04 AM
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I think that people who are "workaholics" basically suffer from an unrecognised mental illness. Either that or they have very empty and boring lives outside of their work. Hopefully one day a cure can be found.

"Rudd is a believer in a soul-deadening puritanical Christianity"
Hehe I can see him whipping his own back until it bleeds with the branch of a gum tree. Although his soul was revived for a short time in that infamous US strip club.

"One struggles through this vale of tears with an eye on the afterlife in which one will be rewarded for not having lived the real one."
He is going to be soooo disappointed.
Posted by alzo, Thursday, 5 June 2008 11:03:04 AM
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Heh. A good article and so true. It seems to me over the past generation or so Australian society has gone mad - we've gone from a situation where a single average income earned from a 40-hour working week was sufficient to sustain a typical family in reasonable comfort, to one where ordinary workers are working ever longer hours, and often two incomes aren't apparently sufficient.

Where does all the money go? Answer: on purchasing oversized houses stuffed with too many consumer goods, on unsustainable motor vehicles, or pissed up against the wall or gambled away as people seek to relieve the stress and alienation caused by their insane lives. Slightly exaggerated of course - but you know what I mean.

All of it gobbles up finite resources and social capital at exponentially increasing rates, and it will probably be a blessing of sorts when the crunch hits as AGW and resource depletion really begin to bite. There is much to be said for 'downshifting' as an alternative to the lunacy of the contemporary rat race - in our case, we did so by choice and circumstance nearly a decade ago now, and we haven't looked back :)
Posted by CJ Morgan, Thursday, 5 June 2008 11:21:49 AM
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This very American work practice of demanding workers toil for more than 8 hours a day without paying overtime is immoral, it just makes the robber barons [oops employers] richer. The growth in company profits has outstripped the growth in hours of work which has outstripped the growth in wages.

Rudd should get a life beyond being Mr Prime Minister and allow public servants to have a life also. You can see people who work long hours are visibly more tired and I remember when Department of Social Security was rolling out a computer system the department demanded long hours of work with workers travelling all around Australia for 2 years. The upshot was that most employees ended up divorced.
Posted by billie, Thursday, 5 June 2008 11:36:03 AM
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Interesting that public-sevants need to quote from the real/workers experience's of the past.

Where were they when howard put blue collar workers onto contacts?

when we got gst?
when they sold telicom?

please quote how much civil-servants work?
40 hours?
38 hours?
30 hours?

How much their pay has gone up while the dumb working/class-slob has barely had 30 percent increase in his takehome pay over the last 12 years.

I understand civil-servants have this thing called flexi-time
[work as you feel ?]
[or as is needed ?]

what gets worked gets made up on the swings and roundabouts

I didnt notice the posters complaining about howard work-choices ,
yet here is one public-servant worked through one night
and the liberal bloggers are on to it big time>

no doudt the sellout docter is making a point about in in the 'house'[of cards] as i type.

And the sold-out liberal media ?
that wants the libs back next election?
are on top of it too [R U suprised?]

Where where you when howard gave high definition to the people instead of multi-channeling ?

The problem isnt that some poor public-servant had to work till dawn, but its that they are expected to work at all

[look their super is in the bank]

[while the poor working-slobs super just got reduced one third via the stock collaps

[the same market our COMPULSORY-super props , up with its weekly COMPULSORY cash top up ]

lets look at public-servants generouse super contributions shall we?

poor bloomin them

They get their paid for cars with their subsidised meals ,and their fuel vouchers, and petrol cards ,free travel
poor bloody them

They dont give a stuff about service
how much they get rent assistance?
poor bloody them

To who much is given
a bit of effort is to be expected

What about our poor sole-diers ,doing battle because public servants just said ok to flawed intel?
[because they are spoiled rotton]

Having nothing better to do than leak documents to the liberal media adjenda ,to write letters to the editor or to blog
Posted by one under god, Thursday, 5 June 2008 2:48:30 PM
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Public servants work much longer hours now than in the days of the inefficient public service of the 70s and 80s.

CJ and billie are spot on. We are constantly told we are better off - but by whose definition? We now cannot live without two incomes, we are working longer and longer hours, eating more fast food, getting fattter, institutionalising our children and spending less time with family.

Kevin Rudd may think that being a workaholic is admirable but is it? Can we trust a person who is at risk of illness, is overtired and stressed while making vital decisions on our behalf? This is different to having a strong work ethic that allows for some commonsense rationing of time.

As a detractor of WorkChoices Mr Rudd should know that work-life balance is paramount for the well being of a nation. Public servants are workers too and have families. Some areas are severely understaffed and expected to produce more while budget cuts don't allow for recruitment.

Like most Australians public servants saw the election of Rudd a bit like the coming of the 'Messiah' - new broom they thought, no more cowering under the hard line and anti-dissent of the Howard regime' and maybe now there might be some attention to social justice and environmental issues. Well it is still early days but already there is some room for improvement.

Rudd makes a big mistake in being too much like the previous government and has to remember they were voted OUT for a reason.

If Rudd wants to make positive changes to the APS he would be better off reviewing some of the Howard political appointments of the senior public service. Some Deputy Secretaries and senior consultants often from the ranks of Liberal ministerial staff and consultants.

Rudd would be better focussed on reviewing national security arrangements (via an external review). National security agencies and departments need a good shake up, a review of the use of funding arrangements and duplication of functions - basically to rid of the empire builders.
Posted by pelican, Thursday, 5 June 2008 3:11:19 PM
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