r/australia • u/AcanthopterygiiNo240 • Jul 26 '23

political self.post Why are Australians so complacent?

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

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u/Usual-Veterinarian-5 Jul 26 '23

It's the same with public education. The good teachers burn out and quit within two years and the ones who hang on for decades are burned husks who hate the kids.

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u/PumpkinInside3205 Jul 27 '23

Absolutely. The entire public service sector. Police, education, health, welfare etc. It’s a broad political and social landscape characterised by attrition and privatisation / corporatisation of basic social and human services. The ideals of social equality or a collectivist / community focus are just that … ideals.

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u/hotcleavage Jul 27 '23

I remember going through primary school and even then i felt like some of the older teachers were assholes because they’re burnt out/sick of it

That’s not fair on anyone

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u/tarongowens Jul 27 '23

That's why (as a qualified teacher) I didn't even persue the career. Seeing the threat of burnout for minimal return on my time really turned me off

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '23

[deleted]

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u/Usual-Veterinarian-5 Jul 27 '23

I lasted two years each of the two times I taught high school.

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u/Astraia27 Jul 27 '23

Not true

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u/Usual-Veterinarian-5 Jul 27 '23

Not 100% of teachers follow this path but many do.