Sunday, June 19, 2005
HALFPENNY LANE
Terry Lane, on permanent loan to Melbourne’s Age from the museum of communism, is depressed:
As the voices of dissent falter under the weight of the free market, power is shifting further away from the working class.
Out here on the pseudo-neo-ersatz-Marxist-extreme left the mood is gloomy. We know that news of factory closures and the export of jobs to Asia should cheer us up because Karl predicted it would happen ...
There is now no voice of dissent in the political realm - unless you count the valiant Greens - arguing for a different way of living. Less competitive and more co-operative. Less greedy and more concerned about the welfare of sacked windscreen-wiper makers and fly-screen weavers and seatbelt assemblers.
If Terry is genuinely concerned about the workers’ welfare, he should be rejoicing. Take a look at these numbers, Mr Gloomy:
A record 61.2per cent of the working-age population now hold a job, with the latest unemployment figures showing the rate still at a 29-year low ... The labour force participation rate—those either in work or looking for a job—has also reached a record 64.6 per cent.
Who knows where Lane’s apocalyptic unemployment notions came from. Perhaps he thinks we’re still ruled by Gough Whitlam.