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The common good

By Everald Compton - posted Tuesday, 27 March 2018


Democracy is dead.

Murdered by political, financial and religious ideology inflicted upon us by 'leaders' with closed minds who survive by divisively spreading fear and greed.

It is time for a new world order called THE COMMON GOOD to take over.

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It will succeed when decent people, with brains, commonsense and courage, step forward and insist on dramatic and decisive changes in the opposite direction to the insanity of Donald Trump and the woeful wilderness of Australian politics.

THE COMMON GOOD is not new. It has been spoken of and advocated by great thinkers from the beginning of time, but too few world leaders have ever tried to take it up.

Abraham Lincoln went closest when he spoke eloquently of the government 'of the people, by the people, for the people'. However, he failed to mention the unfortunate manner in which 'the people' have greedily handled money.

The undeniable fact is that the greedy have always worked against THE COMMON GOOD and they will not easily give up that which they have plundered and hoarded.

Let me give an example of the problem.

The Chief Executive of every major corporation is expected by his shareholders to work only for them and to win at all costs. They want maximum profits, the largest possible dividend and the highest share price even if this means destroying their competition out in the market place by fair means or foul.

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Sadly, this extends to employing the least number of workers that they can and paying them the lowest possible wages for working the longest possible hours in the most economical conditions.

This embraces also the people who are their suppliers. They screw them into the ground, pay the lowest possible prices and then use them as their bankers by not paying them for as many months as they can get away with.

The worst example of this is supermarkets.

They tell farmers the miserable amount they intend to pay for their produce and, if the farmers say this is below their costs of production, they tell them to plough their crop into the ground.

To cap it off our top 100 companies pay the lowest possible tax and then demand a reduction on top of that by crying out for legislated tax cuts.

None of this fosters THE COMMON GOOD.

It does not even remotely occur to them that, if there was an honest marketplace in which all participants profited to some extent, this would be a marketplace in which they would actually profit more than by the dishonest trading circumstances that they have greedily manipulated right now.

What we need is a new corporate world in which those who chair companies are independent leaders of social respect and honour who have the leadership skills to demand from their CEO and staff that they follow a code of trading ethics that enhances humanity and generates a happy, peaceful and cohesive society in which they can make honest profits.

I can already hear some readers saying 'Compton is at best a socialist and at worst a communist or even a trendy lefty'. But, these critics will be the closed mind guys with the highest greed factor in their lives and no ability to change even the toilet paper.

Let us be quite clear.

Communism was a disaster for the human race, a creed that simply created a different breed of clueless, vicious dictators who themselves lived like capitalists.

Socialism dwarfed initiative and fostered a culture in which too many felt they could get by without working too hard.

Capitalism is simply another way of spelling greed, while trade unionism is just another way of being greedy too.

Can we put all of those ridiculous ideologies behind us forever in the scrap book of history.

May we strive together with unstoppable vigour to create THE COMMON GOOD.

This does not mean the creation of a society of equals. That will never happen.

However, it does mean that we will stop striving ceaselessly to work only for the prosperity of NUMBER ONE.

It means that everything we do in life will be in progressive partnerships with others. There is no place in society for selfish loners.

It means that more and more of us will decide to work in not for profit corporations where we will get excellent salaries and wages, but no bonuses or dividends, and with all profits either being ploughed back into the growth of the business or given as grants to community institutions.

What I am really saying is that society can be upgraded by business leaders, not politicians. As an establishment, our political class has betrayed us badly and no longer has the trust of the voters of Australia.

A community of fair dinkum Aussies, led by a need breed of enlightened visionaries, can emerge in the business and financial sectors to assume the role of ethical leaders of the nation, thereby creating a peaceful social revolution that is long overdue.

My prayers are that religious leaders will also open up their minds and join the gentle upheaval that will create THE COMMON GOOD, a philosophy fostered by Jesus of Nazareth.

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This article was first published on Everald Compton.



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About the Author

Everald Compton is Chairman of The Longevity Forum, a not for profit entity which is implementing The Blueprint for an Ageing Australia. He was a Founding Director of National Seniors Australia and served as its Chairman for 25 years. Subsequently , he was Chairman for three years of the Federal Government's Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing.

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