Do We Need To De-Americanise Australia?
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In the wake of Trump 2.0 and the growing realisation that America is completely on the wrong track or, indeed, coming off the rails, do we need to de-Americanise Australia? Take a moment to consider how far down this Americanised route Australia has already travelled. In this Neoliberal Era, in which we live, it is big business running the show and Corporate Australia has imported most of their ideas and ways of doing things from the Yanks. Over decades, we have brought in American CEOs and many of our home grown business leaders have done their MBAs at US higher learning institutions. Things like outsourcing jobs overseas to reduce labour costs and the rise of private equity investment are all American initiatives. Australian big business is very US orientated in the ways it goes about things.
Aussie Big Business Is Americanised
CEOs receiving huge multimillion dollar renumeration packages is, of course, very American. Rewarding this small selection of our population in this OTT way is so American. Inequity and inequality are bred on the back of such reward systems. Great wealth equates with power in the US and Australia has been following the leader on this score. Australia has long been like a little brother shadowing the footsteps of his older sibling in this regard. Those on the Right here, the LNP Coalition in politics have been pushing policies to make Oz more like the USA for decades. They spent something like 33 years trying unsuccessfully to eradicate Medicare and socialised medicine downunder. A frightening figure to consider in America is that 78% of all doctors in America work for corporations. This puts decisions about providing medical care in the hands of bean counters rather than individual GPs.
Coalition Attempts To Americanise Australia
More recently, former PM Tony Abbott attempted to privatise higher education in the mould of the Harvard’s and the Yale’s in the US. Degrees costing hundreds of thousands of dollars would reinforce social hierarchies on the back of wealthy sons and daughters being able to afford the better degrees from sandstone universities and the subsequent economic opportunities that follow. The rise of private schools in Australia have been fed by LNP Coalition education policies over decades. In a nation where capital and wealth is not taxed like income is taxed the growing inequality has spiked following the decade of Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison federal governments. Right wing policies promote a more unfair society of winners and losers, with the winners exploiting things like superannuation bolt holes to avoid paying their proper share of tax. Superannuation was originally devised to provide a self-funded pension for the working folk of Australia and not to amass millions of dollars for the wealthy.
Social Media Cries Out For De-Americanisation
Social media is an American invention, like much of the digital economy. Big Tech in the US runs more monopolies and oligopolies than most other sectors in the economy. Little choice for the consumer means price setting and a rentier economy. You and I pay all these subscriptions for digital services, which are all going up again thanks to AI. Social media feeds on algorithms designed to rile us up, to shock, enrage and stir anxiety via click bait topics, titles and images. America has seen a massive polarising effect from social media. Australia is being assailed by the same divisive business model. Our kids are suffering from a digital world preyed upon by the effects of digital bullying and peer group pressure that operates 24/7. Are we all really better off in this digital world today? In this Americanised Australia? Do we need to de-Americanise Australia? Mark Zuckerburg of Instagram and Facebook is worth US$184 billion. Elon Musk used to be the richest man in the world and is still worth a lot. Jeff Bezos of Amazon is worth US$196 billion. These oligarchs are draining the wealth of ordinary folk thanks to their business models. Joe Biden attempted to introduce some regulation into the digital sector and this is why these billionaires turned to Trump. The greed and ruthlessness of American business is outrageous. Many pundits predict that civil war is coming to America because of the extreme misuses of power and the imbalance of wealth in the US.
“More than 80 per cent of Australians are now getting their information and content from American social media and video streaming services. It’s impacting on the number of Australian stories we see and hear as well as damaging what has been a vibrant Australian film, radio and television industry.”
Donald Trump & De-Americanisation
Donald Trump is a compulsive liar. No president has ever lied so often in American history. The Trump post-truth world is probably the single most dangerous aspect of his influence upon American and global cultures. Trump’s background was as a real estate salesman and most of us know that these folk exaggerate stuff in order to get us to buy their properties. Donald Trump is a convicted felon and a 6 times bankrupt. Bringing that same predilection for exaggeration and spin to the White House is not good for the country or its people. A conman and grifter running the show is not going to be good for the global economy, as we are now seeing. Americans talk a lot, too much in the view of many Australians, and, perhaps, Americans don’t really listen to each other on this basis of too much hot air. If you cannot trust what your leader tells you, it is a recipe for disaster and deceit.
Peter Dutton In A Post-Trumpian Australia
In Australia, we have seen Peter Dutton and his LNP team campaign on the back of Trump like policies only to suddenly read the mood of the room and backtrack fast. Slashing the public service and forcing them all to get back into the office rather than working from home were Coalition policies but are now being walked back. Focus group feedback rang alarm bells apparently. This shows that this mob are not ready to govern. I do not think I have ever seen such a reversal mid election campaign. Dutton is a political animal and will do and say whatever to get power. Integrity is way down his list of priorities and believing what this bloke says is too much of a risk by the available evidence.
The anti-Trump backlash happening around the world and in Australia has caught these right wing politicians by surprise, obviously. Telling lies is grist for the mill for most politicians during the electioneering period. Fear mongering is the Dutton MO. It seems, however, that the Australian electorate is in no mood for Trumpian excess.
Aussies Not Appreciative Of Trump Uncertainty
Do we need to De-Americanise Australia? Do the majority of Aussies detest the uncertainty and chaos that Trump has unleashed globally? Do they not appreciate the hundreds of billions of dollars wiped off their share portfolios and retirement funds?
“By the close, the ASX 200 had lost 4.2 per cent — its worst percentage fall since May 2020 — while the All Ordinaries shed 4.1 per cent, equating to nearly $110 billion in value being wiped off in a single session. It adds to Thursday and Friday’s losses, which saw 3.9 per cent wiped off the benchmark index over the week.”
Trump the wrecker is doing his thing with bugger all concern for the plight of others. America has, until now, for 80 years led the globalisation efforts around the world. This has been a sharing of wealth among many countries with economic advantages spread far and wide. The reversal of this will take decades and few economists can feasibly see America returning to manufacturing pre-eminence in the 21C. The Trumpian tariffs may just be the death throes of the hegemony of America. The lack of respect for Donald Trump and more importantly for the way he does things will likely see new trading blocks fast emerging to fill the gaps provided by the Americans. I cannot see Europe embracing a white supremacist, anti-DEI way of doing things and the anti-Trump backlash is only growing. World trade is vitally important to economic growth and world peace. A dog eat dog transactional US will only find itself more isolated on so many fronts. Most Australians, I think, do not want to be part of that future. Perhaps, the racist yellow peril anxieties will not be so supported without American backing. Anglo-settler new world nations carry with them old prejudices not so helpful in a 21C world.
“The richest country and the world’s super power is claiming victimhood status under the Trump regime. ‘Poor me’ is the new national anthem. Trump is trying to turn back a century of progress in globalisation. He is turning America against the world. Nobody is doing this to the USA, this is an own goal. The last time the US brought in tariffs like this it resulted in the Great Depression.”
Let’s De-AUKUS Our Future
Australia would be best served by investing in its own national security and military, rather than tagging along with the Americans. AUKUS is a bad deal and will not provide the submarines we are wanting in a timely or cost efficient manner. Former PM Malcolm Turnbull was eloquent in his reasons for this set out at the National Press Club in his recent speech.
Pretending that everything is OK on this score, with Trump in the White House, is pretty silly behaviour. It was a bad deal, even before Trump won re-election, as the likelihood of Australia seeing any subs for 20 plus years is less than slight. Pull the pin now and make other arrangements in light of the isolationist policies of the US being undertaken. Indeed, grow up Australia and let’s take responsibility for defending our own patch. A smart Australia has long, since WW2, navigated the tricky waters of diplomacy and defence. Alliances only work with the willing and able. America fails on both these factors at the moment.
Hollywood Aint The Real America Folks
The BS and spin which are manufactured out of Hollywood have enchanted Australians for many decades. The smug ‘go-getter’ image of America and Americans is celluloid propaganda, which often never shows the underbelly of the place. America is a salesperson’s paradise where the lily is gilded and the truth glossed up outrageously. Trump 2.0 is the culmination of America’s own mythologising of celebrity and reality TV. Most Americans are unhappy with their lot in life and are looking around for people to blame. Trump is telling them it is the Chinese, the Europeans, the Canadians and Mexicans. It is everyone else but the oligarchs backing Trump and the GOP. Scapegoating is a favourite strategy for right wing regimes. Conmen point to others to take the fall. Grifters pull the wool over the eyes of the schmucks at the fair.
Americanised Via Mergers & Takeovers
Economically in Australia we have the worst levels of corporate concentration of ownership in every sector. Again, we have followed the Yanks on this score. Our gutless and underfunded ACCC has failed miserably for decades to protect competition in the markets within the Australian economy. Capitalism and the free market do not work without competition for consumers. It is a rigged game now markedly in favour of Corporate Australia and the international multinationals. None of whom pay proper levels of tax on the revenues they generate here. This is American too, shifting profits to low taxing territories in an accountant’s sleight of hand. The PwC’s and KPMG’s have infiltrated our governments and agencies to ensure they make the rules that govern taxation. This is where things do need shaking up in Australia, to shake out the facilitators who enable the avoidance of paying fair amounts of tax. The neoliberal mantra is that only share holders matter.
Companies only care about their returns to investors and everything else is secondary. This simplified and shallow way of looking at things is why those on the Right want to privatise everything. It is only governments that have the deeper remit and if government services are shrunk and public assets transferred to the private sector, well, we are f*****.
Just take a look at Trump 2.0 in America.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
©MidasWord
