“Young People Are Being Totally Screwed”: How COVID Exposed Inequalities For Young Aussies

The catch cry of 2020 might be “we’re all in this together”, but it’s become abundantly clear as the pandemic drags on that really, we’re not.

It’s true this year has been hard on everyone, but it’s undoubtedly it’s been the hardest on those that were already struggling — and all those problems that once seemed like little cracks in our society now look a lot more like giant fractures.

The fact that people on unemployment benefits were forced to get by on a wage we knew was unliveable. The fact that businesses routinely underpaid young workers, and got away with exploiting casuals. The fact that renters have been stuck paying through the nose for insecure housing in terrible condition. The fact that corporations have made millions making climate change worse and ignored calls to mitigate this. The fact that it took an overseas death to make us take a long hard look at our record on Indigenous deaths in custody. The fact that our elderly are being kept in substandard places that prioritise profit over people.

None of these problems are new. We’ve been putting up with this shit for years.

But in a year where everything else has been turned on its head, these fundamental inequalities that we’ve accepted as the status quo are now being questioned. As we’ve seen, society can change overnight — so why shouldn’t it change for the better?

Fighting For Justice In The Only Way Big Businesses Understand: Financially

Addressing inequality is by no means a small task. Just ask Senator Nick McKim.

“I totally understand why young people are getting disillusioned with politics, because the neoliberal model has failed them so terribly,” McKim told Junkee.

“They can see the big corporations and the super wealthy just making off like bandits, making obscene profits, living the high life while for young people it’s really, really difficult at the moment.”

The Greens Deputy Leader has just been handed a newly created portfolio which is focused purely on achieving economic justice.

What’s economic justice, you ask? Well, it’s not the scenario we saw last year — where people earning minimum wage paid more tax than Exxon Mobil (as one example). The oil and gas company reported an income of more than $9 billion to the ATO in 2017/18, yet paid zero tax.

“Young people’s future is being stolen from them by the big corporations and by the super wealthy and by an economy that is destroying the environment,” McKim said.

“I just think young people are being totally screwed at the moment.”

The opportunity to create the new portfolio came during a Greens cabinet reshuffle after their former leader Richard Di Natale stepped down — and with the country in a recession it couldn’t have come at a better time.

McKim said he’s is planning to use it to campaign against wealth inequality, neoliberalism and austerity.

They’re still developing their new policies, but on the agenda will be wage stagnation, the declining rate of home ownership, rising unemployment (and underemployment), and a permanent welfare increase.

“These things have got to be addressed and they’ve got to be addressed urgently, and we think that reframing the economic debate around fairness and justice — whether that be social justice or environmental justice — is a way that we can think about these things differently and hopefully make a difference on those issues,” he said.

So, What Do All These Buzzwords Mean?

Neoliberalism refers to a system which favours competition between businesses in a free market.

It’s got many right-leaning advocates who say this privatisation and deregulation simply rewards successful businesses, and is based on “meritocracy“. There are also plenty of left-leaning critics who say it gives corporations too much power and ignores the barriers of structural inequality.

In comparison, economic justice advocates for wealth to be shared more equally based on the idea that the economy will be more successful if it is fairer. This also aligns with what economists have been saying about the recession — that lower income earners who get financial boost are more likely to spend it (as opposed to higher income earners, who hoard it), thus stimulating the economy.

“We need a new way forward that delivers a fairer society, a fairer economy where the wealth is shared more equally, and has ultimately a respect for nature and the processes of our ecology,” McKim said.

So, What Would That Look Like?

If we want to start closing the gap between the Gina Rinehart’s of the world and the rest of us, a crucial tool is tax. More specifically, a tax on big businesses, fossil fuel companies and the super-rich, with the money used to support people who need it.

Right now the Morrison government is considering tax cuts which will disproportionately benefit higher income earners, while stubbornly sticking to the plan to cut welfare payments for those on JobSeeker and JobKeeper.

It’s a familiar scenario we’ve seen played out many times before.

This is the budget table that confirms a tax cut is coming worth over $11,000 for very high income earners while low income workers get a couple of hundred bucks https://t.co/5MYGguaL8k pic.twitter.com/sMfuTeA5iK

— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) September 3, 2020

The rich are getting richer by the minute. They will no doubt save rather than spend this windfall, possibly by topping up their super. Meanwhile the poor are using up their super to pay rent.

— Jeff Morris (@jmwhistleblower) September 3, 2020

Neoliberal coalition 'monkeys' (to steal from Paul Keating this morning) have never seen a problem that could not be 'fixed' by a tax cut. Just piles up more income for the already-well-off. What about the many without jobs or with meagre incomes? #auspol #TaxTheRich

— Peter Cook (@peakDecisions) September 2, 2020

“People often say the Greens have got no economic credibility. Well, my response to that is, look at the shitshow that’s being left to us after 50 years of neoliberalism,” McKim said.

“It’s left us with a rampantly unfair society and environmental catastrophe, and it has to change.

“We want to make sure that taxation is about a genuine transfer of wealth to make the wealth in our community more equally shared, and that will require the big corporations and the super wealthy to pay their fair share of tax … so we can do more to support young people and people who are doing it really tough at the moment.”