Rex Jory: Australia’s generous welfare system is eroding one of its greatest strengths — incentive and initiative
I’VE had a gutful. I worked for more than 50 years to prepare for my current semi-retirement. I worked hard. Paid my taxes. For the last 20 years of work I didn’t claim one sick day.
Not once in that 50-plus years did I seek a pay rise. I got paid what other people deemed I was worth. If I travelled or was posted to exotic cities, that was the decision of others.
I helped raise and educate two children, who are well adjusted and successful. I battled with banks — often in periods of excessive mortgage interest rates — to own my own house. I juggled credit cards to pay the household basics.
I scrimped and saved to bolster my superannuation entitlements and to keep enough in the bank to cope with any unexpected crises. I paid for private health insurance, and in that half-century did not once receive anything resembling a welfare payment.
Because of my prudent, even thrifty, economic planning I now live comfortably if judiciously on the proceeds of my superannuation. In financial terms, it would be absurd to say I am wealthy. I could have, and should have, better prepared for retirement.
Families better off on welfare than at work1:23
Figures show thousands on family payment benefits are better off financially on welfare than at work.
But in the end I am now reliant on no one. I am financially independent and get no assistance from any government. No pension, no health care card, no housing relief, no rate subsidy, no cheap power or water, no transport concession other than off-peak public transport, no fuel rebate, no food coupons and no education reimbursement.
Yet somehow I have been stereotyped as a sort of public pariah. It has become an offence against society to have independent means. It is fashionable to criticise people such as me for being modestly well off and self-sufficient.
There would be millions of people with a similar story of frugal and responsible planning and sacrifice who are being played for chumps by a sizeable sector of the community.
Even now, governments are circling us, plotting ways to get their hands on our superannuation savings. I’ve had a gutful. And I’ll bet I’m not alone.
People grumble about the divided society, the haves and have nots. Many struggling people receive well-deserved assistance. Every decent society must have a safety net for people who can’t manage. And of course there are inequalities and injustices.
But last week we learned that as many as 400,000 people are receiving government benefits of up to $51,000 a year tax free for doing nothing. Many of them are capable of full-time work. If governments are going to give them handouts of $1000 a week, what incentive have they to work? Precious little, I suggest.
And many retirees would be lucky to receive $51,000 a year from their superannuation investments after a lifetime of work and saving. What’s just and equitable about that?
I heard last week of a woman who had taken her family “home” to Italy for holidays three times in the past 18 months. Her plan was to run down her cash reserves so that she could get the pension and other benefits. What’s just and equitable about that?
I know of people who receive handsome payments for disabilities that are at best questionable. Or who collect the dole without seriously looking for a job. What’s just and equitable about that?
The generous welfare system is eroding incentive as well as initiative, one of Australia’s greatest strengths. Too many are able to extract enough handouts from the system to live comfortably without working.
It is no longer worth their while to work. Work and they lose government benefits, so why bother? The long-term outcome of this trend is the rapid decay of our society. People who work or who have worked resent those who are getting paid by governments for doing nothing.
And the children of people who survive on benefits have no incentive to receive an education or hone their employment skills because they see an easier way — manipulate the welfare system.
Is it any wonder millions of people like me who have worked to provide for their retirement have had a gutful?