Tuesday, April 24, 2007

where's Donald Trump when you need him?

Remember all that talk we heard in the 90s about things like the "triple bottom line"? I thought the point was to humanise capitalism, to force the market to behave more ethically and thoughtfully (maybe even rationally) about consequences in terms of families and the environment by conspicuously including them in the balance sheet. But now we're back to dehumanising capitalism by turning workers into commodities, and John Howard's great plan reeks of mean old 80s economic rationalism.
Over the years the PM has liked to trumpet about 'corporate philanthropy' but it has never really come to pass. On the contrary, we now have a situation where big business will only very grudgingly come to the party that John Howard is throwing for them and contribute some small change towards the election campaign. Talk about ungrateful cheapskates, after all he's done for them!
The intrinsic problem with "WorkChoices" is that people know from first-hand experience that there has always been a power differential between bosses and workers, and that Howard's reforms can only widen the gap.
Mr Howard...you're fired.