Lately people from the coalition have been rabbiting on about a sense of entitlement. In fact Joe Hockey has proclaimed the age of entitlement is over. This is particularly scary given this is the man that would be our next treasurer, and has fired his warning shot. He has gone so far as to say “Entitlement is a concept that corrodes the very heart of the process of free enterprise which drives our economy.”
This of course is a rubbish notion, fact is we as society have a collective ownership over the services in this country, it’s that ownership that allows an environment in which wealth creation can occur that drives free enterprise.
Every single citizen has a debt, a social contract with the rest of society to pay your way, society has a right to expect a reasonable return on investment from all citizens on the services it collectively provides universally to all.
When Joe Hockey talks about entitlement he believes we as a nation shouldn’t have a welfare state so he can pay less taxes and keep more of his hard earned, but this in itself is Joe Hockey wanting his own version of entitlement.
He believes he has a right, an entitlement to grow up in an environment that we as society collectively provided for him in which he was able to enjoy the fruits of wealth creation and become financially successful and not have to repay society or pay that good fortune forward. No man is an island, he did not magically become wealthy. No one is ever self made, they can choose how they navigate the river but the river has to be there to navigate and that’s what society has provided the river to wealth.
Undoubtedly you owe society regardless of your circumstance. There is nothing wrong with the redistribution of wealth, because that wealth that potential is the by product of society. We live in a country that has allowed enterprise to grow and thrive, this cannot be denied on the strength of our economy and our banking sector and every Australian has the duty to pay what that can afford to pay. Joe Hockey, Gina, Clive and Andrew can all afford to pay a damn side more then they do and yet they have the nerve to talk about a sense of entitlement.