Can you imagine always leaving home without a mobile phone. The moment you leave the house, you are un-contactable for the whole day until you get back home? You can't just give someone a quick update with an SMS? The idea is just unfathomable.
What about going without air conditioning on those really hot summers days? Or without the internet or TV? The idea to go back to life without these things just seem impossible.
Well, this is the issue that our governments have at the moment in trying to repair a serious budget black hole. The government needs to save money but taking something away that we've become so accustomed to is met by fierce objection.
"Everyone in the last 10 years got a baby bonus or paid parental leave and I pay taxes so I should get it too."
Well no. If the government takes away some sort of benefit or welfare, there comes a point in time were someone doesn't get it.
It's just like queuing up for tickets to a sports game or concert and they sell out. Somewhere in the line, the person in front got tickets and you didn't and this needs to happen for government hand outs.
Baby bonus/paid parental leave, Family tax benefit, HECS and government assisted tertiary education, free* health care, age pension, any welfare for that matter.
I'm not saying all of these are bad and should be scrapped altogether, but something needs to change and as I said earlier, taking something away that we've had is very difficult to accept.
Look at the backlash and resistance to the proposal to increase the age pension age to 70. The outcries of the government making everyone work so long. When the age pension was introduced, the qualifying age was 65 (for males) and our life expectancy was 63. So living long enough to claim it was a good outcome. Now, it is seen as a right to get the age pension, and not just get it, but get it for 20 years. The age pension age being 70 is not the retirement age. The retirement age is any age you want if you have enough money so the onus is on you if you want to retire earlier.
So, all that I ask is that before you just jump up and down at a proposal to remove some benefit to help repair the government budget and before you start sharing the hate photos on Facebook about how they have no right to take this or that away, just have a think about it and maybe share this blog instead (shameless plug). Sure, it would be nice if we could just have everything but unfortunately the world doesn't work like that. Politicians don't work on a bonus structure on savings they make and they don't have some psychiatric problem where they just want to see us suffer. Sometimes taking something away is for the countries long term benefit.
*Health care isn't free. It's just not on a user pays system so it 'seems' free.
