Deirdre McCloskey explains what makes Australia great

The generally posited historical causes of the Great Fact have been everything from the Reformation to the slave trade, foreign trade, European imperialism, property rights and so on. None of these familiar factors explains growth in all places, at all times.

But at least they rate a mention. At least they are conjoint or partial causes.

What does not rate and never will rate is occupying land, with little language and no innovation.

The enlightened of England declared: Out with the old ideas, in with the new. By contrast, the idea that the original settlers are entitled to share equally in the bounty - without contributing equally to it - is Luddite thinking.

Claiming someone else's heritage and rewards and damning them out of the side of your mouth is a sin. It has to be called out, and condemned.

The anti-modernisation thinking that infects so much of Australian society, and which buttresses much of the Aboriginal industry, does not care for those condemned to misery in traditional societies, where elders decide who gets the white man's rent.

Aborigines must aspire to more than collecting the rent.

Their leaders can argue "we" stole the land, but "we" could argue they are reaping the benefits of the intellectual property of modern Australia.

How about we call it quits and you be grateful that the Great Fact came to your land?

All of the sneerers at the bourgeois should save their breath; you need them, it pays for your job.