Liam's picture
Wed, 31/05/2006 - 4:19pm — Liam

In a week where our very communitarian Prime Minister has come out in favour of lower wages for the common good, and a national retailer is forcing its workers to abandon overtime and penalty rates in return for a 2¢ an hour pay rise, it’s good to know that somewhere in the world, the only moderately rich are at the centre of the fight for social justice.

Let me introduce you all to Responsible Wealth, a team of people who ask the very reasonable question: if capitalism works so well for them, why can’t it work for their employees too?

“Paying a living wage is good for business. I have a stable and productive workforce, which enables me to better serve my clients. Satisfied clients lead to more business and more jobs. Also, my employees have more money to spend which has a very positive economic impact in the community.”
-Barry Hermanson, Hermanson’s Employment Services

And it’s not just wages that the moderately rich are getting fightey about. The same class of bolshie, red ragging, self-hating millionaires are getting behind a campaign to retain taxes on capital and estates.

There’s a lot to be said for the American bourgeois concern for the poor. Nobody in the US, rightly or wrongly, tends to argue against religious groups being involved in the political struggle against injustice!

It seems more and more to me as if the Australian very very wealthy have so little challenge from the moderately rich, let alone from the advocates for the not-so-flash and very poor, that they’ve lost all conception of the idea that the economy is a shared place.

In any case, the very last word on this issue has to go to a regular commenter and employer at the other Australian House of Stoush, Steve at the Pub:

Dishing out a direct pay cut (ie, paying $91 less per week for the same work & conditions) can only lower staff morale, productivity, efficiency, diligence, and lastly retention.
I wonder how much thought Spotlight put into the entire scenario?