Downward Envy: What Kind Of Australian Indulges In That?
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Hands up who has heard of the term ‘downward envy’? Yes, this is the name for all those Aussies who think that everyone on welfare is a dole bludger. These people reckon that there are too many folk having a good time on less than $50 a day. You could not even pay your rent in Australia on that, let alone eat. Downward envy: What kind of Australian indulges in that? Bitter and twisted miserable bastards comes to mind. Unhappy people wanting to apportion blame onto others, also, springs to mind in this case.
“As a student of John Howard, Peter Dutton was always going to focus his budget reply speech on how middle Australia is missing out, in the hope that there are enough Howard battlers still around to appreciate the throwback. In this line of attack on the government’s priorities, he’s getting help from some sections of the press gallery. At his National Press Club address the day after the budget was handed down, Treasurer Jim Chalmers took a question from Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell. “With unemployment at three and a half per cent, it seems in the vast majority of cases, if you want a job, you can get a job,” began Clennell. “So why do people on the dole get more money from the government out of this budget, but not a household on more than $160k a year who, for example, don’t get the electricity bill relief? What do you say to those working full time about why those on the dole get relief, but they don’t?” Won’t somebody think of the couple on $160,000 a year?”
Robodebt & Downward Envy
Weak scumbags who like putting the boot into those who can’t fight back is another identifying attribute here, I reckon. The Robodebt debacle was fuelled by downward envy and the Coalition of the Liberals and Nationals in government fed on it. Scott Morrison, that great liar who led the nation, was a driving force in the Robodebt shameful betrayal of vulnerable Australians. Tony Abbott, Stuart Robert, Alan Tudge, and Marissa Payne all had their grubby paws on it as well. Plus, a bunch of shameless senior bureaucrats who would have licked the s*** from the sewer if asked to and for their plump pay packets.
Nothing To See Here Your Honour
Lest we forget, people actually died on the back of the disgraceful and unlawful imposition of debts upon them. Oh yeah, and it cost the Australian tax payers $1.8 billion for the massive stuff up it was. Did any of these movers and shakers even say they were sorry? No. Nobody was responsible apparently – it kind of just happened by itself apparently. Bloody amazing how these politicians and senior public servants conveniently go missing when they are handing out blame and the s*** sandwiches.
The Robodebt welfare cops were suddenly on holiday during the Royal Commission and ducked the arse smacking from the judge.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers noted:
He cited comments by Taylor “that what worried him about our changes in social security was that it meant that the broader Australian community would be funding help for the most vulnerable”.
“That is the whole basis of social security,” Chalmers said, to applause in Parliament House’s great hall, packed with ministers, department heads, chief executives and advocates who had called for increases in welfare.
“And I think that our country is better, frankly, than the kind of downward envy that we hear about from time to time from people like Angus Taylor.
Downward Envy & Keeping The Abos In Their Place
Peter Dutton is The Grand Poo Bah of the downward envy club in Australia. Old skull, Voldemort himself, is forever ready with a dog whistle for the racist mob and their bitter hate for Indigenous Australia. It is never enough that institutional neglect and racist behaviours have dogged First Nations people in this country for hundreds of years. No, the Coalition of miserable scumbags is dedicated to keeping them in their place at the bottom of the wealth ladder. Closing the gap won’t be happening anytime soon on their watch. Cheap shots at Linda Burney for the way she speaks. Jibes and thinly disguised insults thrown at Aboriginals for being bludgers. Downward envy bubbles over on the stove for this lot.
Sky News Australia, Fox & Downward Envy
Sky News Australia is where Rupert Murdoch has coalesced all the smug, ugly, and selfish attributes of Australians into one, hopefully, cash inspiring place. Fox News is his American cash cow, where he feeds on the rabid right wing audience over there. The thing about right wing news is that it doesn’t even bother being objective. Telling lies is par for the course and the dumber the BS the better for the alt right. Successfully sued for a billion dollars for misleading the public over Dominion’s role in the 2020 presidential election Fox News is so far from being a trusted source of news it is a sick joke.
Donald Trump the compulsive liar is the pied piper of fake news on Fox. Murdoch and the Trump machine go around sucking billions of dollars out of a deluded audience hellbent on believing anything that fits into their own uber partisan view of the world.
Downward envy even gets a guernsey over there with African Americans in the ghettoes getting a free ride wherever they are going, according to the shock jocks and motor mouths on Fox and Sky News Australia. Yes, Blacks deserve the hundreds of years of slavery and the decades of Black Codes locking them up and continuing peonage slavery for the state in the south until 1942. Race was criminalised in America and still is with a veritable industry keeping African Americans incarcerated and working in prisons as free labour for states and corporations to this day. It is big business in the US of A.
Downward envy is like having the telescope the wrong way around. Peering down into the lives of the poor and benighted and giving them a hard time for their troubles. This is the Murdoch, Trump, and Dutton stratagem. Blame those below you on the economic ladder for their self-begotten woes – that way your own greed and self-serving attitudes don’t ever come into question.
Middle Australia has never been wealthier, despite the fact that landlords and corporations are feasting on the inflated fat of the land. But don’t blame the rich because you aspire to that position yourselves. Blame the poor, the homeless and the unemployed instead. Welcome to modern Australia in the 21C.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters; Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.
©MidasWord
