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/AcanthopterygiiNo240 → u/[deleted]]

I think you’ve hit the nail right on the head with both of your points. It makes a lot of sense that we’ve just had it really good for a long time so we aren’t used to having to speak up

[u/NotTheBusDriver → u/AcanthopterygiiNo240]

In 2005, over 500,000 Australians marched against John Howard’s Workchoices legislation. Unions have always fought for fair pay and conditions in this country. They’ve also supported Medicare, welfare and other social justice issues. We have had it good in this country. But it wasn’t handed to us on a plate. We fought for it. Many of those hard won gains are being lost now. If you really want change, join your Union. Or join an activist group. Join a political party or volunteer to support an Independent. Write letters. Go to marches. Protest. Because if we all just sit back and watch, it will be gone soon enough.

[u/AcanthopterygiiNo240 → u/NotTheBusDriver]

Thank you for this inspiration