The tale of the wealthy bludger

We do not blame the poor for being poor, or suggest that it is because they are lazy or incapable of earning a living. Likewise, is it altogether hard work and enterprise that has made the wealthy rich? Could there be bludgers among the wealthy?

Not many of us have the stamina to look privilege squarely in the face. We have created an economy where we all feel vulnerable. We are familiar with the injustices we personally have to deal with and we feel threatened to even acknowledge the wider picture of disadvantage, let alone do anything about it.

There is a biblical story in which a rich young man chooses to maintain his material wealth rather than give it up to follow Jesus. The tough message is not so much that he loved his wealth and refused to share it. Rather it refers to the problems surrounding his inherited wealth.

In Jesus' time the rich were the people who had the power to manipulate the political and religious structures. They would take over your lands when circumstances forced you into debt.

So it was not just his wealth that was out of kilter but the way he obtained it. Gospel teaching often avoids that lesson, and instead goes for the soft option, citing the story as an injunction to make tax exempt donations to the charity of our choice.

We are all familiar with the concept of affluenza, the 'consumerist mentality' as posited by Clive Hamilton. The economic situation that has unfolded in recent weeks shows how vulnerable even the wealthy are to the nature of the economy.

To say people are driven by greed is not the whole picture. When there is such an ever-widening discrepancy between rich and poor, no one feels secure. Everyone feels as though they are holding on to their way of life by a mere thread.

So it is fear as much as greed that propels people into consumerism. Greed is a product of the vast differences in wealth, and not necessarily a major cause. 

Think what would happen if we lavished attention on disadvantaged areas. If we demanded better schools and facilities from the government. If we put church resources into these areas. We all know the consequences. With better livability more people would be enticed to live in these areas, thus pushing up real estate prices and simply forcing the poor onto another forgotten post code. Such are some of the challenges before us.

The Federal Government is conducting an inquiry into our taxation system. All submissions are to be sent in by 17 October. We all have a responsibility to see what is happening to our taxes. It should be obvious that present taxation favours the wealthy. Taxation has failed to relieve poverty or to lesson the gap between rich and poor. Taxation is now failing to adequately fund community services such as education and health.

Whatever taxes the wealthy pay, they receive back, by and large. Taxation spent on schools, roads, security, communication and facilities all increase land values. Rising land values benefit property owners, and in turn hurt people who have to pay higher rents or who are looking to buy a home.

We all pay our taxes, yet those who have large investments in growth areas where our taxes are spent reap untold benefits. Winners are grinners and this tax grab is made to look so ethical that few of us realise there is a strong body of evidence which disputes the ethics of wealth accumulation via private land acquisition at the expense of the community.

Whatever we want to say about the present debt situation it has been brought about because people were working on the assumption that debt would be paid by ever rising land prices. Building a just society requires more than wealth distribution at the final stage.