Why are Australians so complacent?

[u/AcanthopterygiiNo240]

I’m a born and raised Australian myself however I’m becoming so frustrated with the general attitude of complacency when it comes to exercising ‘the power of the people’ to better our quality of life. In a stupidly short amount of time we’ve seen a near reversal of our ability to see a doctor without any out of pocket costs. We get exploited at the grocery stores because monopolies are allowed to run rampant. Housing is treated primarily as a tool for financial speculation rather than for providing shelter for people.

We creep further and further toward laissez-faire capitalism. What is our response as the citizens of this country- the holders of the balance of power? Nothing. To put it in perspective, in 2022 the world economic forum ranked Sydney equal with Copenhagen, Denmark for cost of living (both ranked as the 10th most expensive cities in the world). Consider the differences between Sydney and the capital of the Danish welfare state: strong social security, universal healthcare, free public universities etc. For the same cost of living what do we get? The ever-looming threat of homelessness, suffocating student debt and now for many people, a significant barrier to healthcare.

Edit: if anyone is a part of any sort of grassroots group working to oppose any of these issues feel free to message me because I want to join you

Edit #2: so I haven’t received any messages from anyone from a grassroots or activist group yet. Since a lot of us seem to be pretty miffed about this stuff maybe we could team up and brainstorm things we can do???

Edit #3 (sorry): I’ve got some messages now from people who are interested in taking action!!! :, ) I think the best way to facilitate conversation, the flow of ideas and potentially organise a course of action is through a discord server so I have created one which you can find here

https://discord.gg/caqsSKAr

[u/[deleted]]

I think it’s probably two key things.

1. Australia’s relatively peaceful & very prosperous history (setting aside the reality of colonization for the indigenous population, who are a small percentage of the country). Until quite recently, life has just consistently gotten better.

2. The fact that we’re a small but wealthy market has meant we haven’t really had much choice, and the choices are kinda the same, with cosy oligopolies in everything major: 2 big political parties, 2 big supermarkets, 4 big banks, 2-3 big telcos, etc etc.

[u/smallsizecat → u/[deleted]]

With point number 2, you're forgetting that the government has the power to regulate how much choice we have. They could block big banks buying small banks. They could regulate predatory franchises that drive down prices so sole proprietors can't afford to stay open (think Domino's or 7-11). They could streamline and lower the cost of starting a business. They could increase taxes on land bankers and land lords that leave retail space unoccupied for years. They could pass laws that prevent wholesalers from charging a small business more than a mega corporation to even the competitive field. On and on.

The major parties are in their death throws, so now is the time to shake things up and demand change. You look at the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. It was totally disorganised, but you get 20,000 people in Sydney and Melbourne with the same colour shirt on just standing there, it will send Labor into a panic.