Greed and fear reign in Oz

Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves. Albert Camus, The Plague

We are living in the Age of Greed and Fear and no one is immune.

This is a story about the behaviour of the 'quiet majority' who of late, have adopted the malignant and selfish values of corporate Australia.

When the economy is sailing on an even keel, the titans of commerce want the government to keep its nose out of their business. They want open markets and deregulation, while they price gouge their customer base.

When an economic storm hits – and this one will be larger than the GFC – they turn from being the apostles of the free market, to whining babies, who want the government to pump taxpayer dollars in to their businesses.

Not only is the taxpayer a victim of their malfeasance and downright criminality in some cases, but they prop up these extortionists (think banks) in the hard times. As Perth band 'Supernaut' sang back in the 1970s, "I like it both ways."

These bastards have been limbo dancing under the lowest common denominator for 40 years. You'd be an idiot to let them do it again.

People want to know how long this recession will last and how bad will it get? There's no yardstick to measure it. It's a black swan event.

So far credit markets have seized, cash supplies have evaporated and in this iteration of a global meltdown, cutting interest rates is utterly useless.

Debt amongst the big corporations and especially American companies, is colossal. American corporate debt alone is about $US19 trillion. That's a black hole sucking in matter from across the global financial system.

This recession will be very different. The economy was in a poor shape even before the virus hit. After the 1990s recession, real household income per capita fell 8 per cent, and it took nearly six years to return to the level it was back in March 1990.

Keep in mind our real household income per capita has been falling for almost six years. I expect it will take Australia ten years to climb out of this hole.

We will see massive unemployment and under employment and it will hit male full-time workers the hardest. The recessions of the 1980s, 1990s and the GFC saw the percentage of men working full-time collapse.

Much of the media has lived under the delusion that the unemployment rate was five or six per cent. The ABS's ancient methodology is akin to counting on an abacus. I expect real unemployment rates of around 12-15 per cent.

Quality of the faces in the street

They say radical change shows the true character of a people. The Australian people are united in food hoarding.

They'll put up with dodgy private providers charging their kids thousands of dollars for scam qualifications. They tolerate being under paid millions of dollars in wages. They'll eventually forget that the banks and major financial institutions stole money from their accounts.

Shopping carts for a family of four are filled to the brim with toilet paper (why?), hand sanitiser, cans of food and more. The weekly shop has blown out from $250 to $500.00. They're pushing old people out of the way to make sure they get the last toilet roll, the last can of tomato soup, etc.

Their pea brains don't compute the fact that you also want other people to use soap and hand sanitiser as well.

They're even stealing hand sanitisers from hospital. But damn the torpedos, damn the calls for restraint, to hell with everyone else, it's you and me and the kids, baby.

I still get teary when I hear the Last Post played at Anzac Cove or at the MCG on Anzac Day. I think of members of my family who fought the Japanese in PNG or flew bombers over Europe to defeat the Nazis. To be honest, I think how easy I've got it.

But I'll be damned if I can equate the values, ethics and morality with those men and women with the greedy golems, who prowl our supermarkets and corner shops.

They have not only taken food out of the mouths of the elderly and the infirm but they have stripped the nation's chemist shelves of children's medications such as Panadol, Nurofen and asthma medicines, just as the cold and flu season begins.

This has sparked fears young children may wind up in emergency departments, creating further burdens on the health system.

Consider the behaviour of some - who when they see the doctor and are close enough to infect them – confess they've been overseas. They're worried they've got coronavirus. They've endanger the staff, the nurses and the doctors – and real patients who may attend the clinic after them. Charge them under the Terrorism Act.

Check out this address by American health expert, Dr Emily Landon, on the importance of self-isolation in the Washington Post. It's hard to beat.

There are plenty of good news stories too. I've heard of neighbours leaving toilet rolls on front doors; of workers paying for the groceries of the person in the line after them; of school kids pooling their pocket money and sending it to universities to help create a vaccine.

I acknowledge the good. As Albert Camus said in The Plague, "What's true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves."

The reaction of great swathes of the Australian people to the coronavirus outbreak, destroys any conception of Australian exceptionalism. Saccharine reference to mateship and egalitarianism are empty rhetoric. We have not risen above ourselves.

Australia is a nation, a fortress built by nature against infection and the hand of war, but unfortunately now, it's a castle where greed and fear reign supreme.