As the old song begins, “Here’s a story, sad but true…” – (Runaround Sue by Dion for those of you too young to remember).
Not just true, but true thousands of times, millions if we include the US.
The story matters because it shines a light on what informs and drives Scott Morrison.
Shayne grew up in a medium sized town in NSW, finished high school and went to work in a local factory, the largest employer in the district.
He married, and together he and his wife worked double shifts and saved like mad, until finally, they had a deposit for a home.
They, plus a couple of kids after a while, were doing okay.
The factory was quite profitable, but a consulting firm showed the owner how he could make even bigger profits by moving the operation to China.
And so he closed it down and took it offshore.
Several small businesses that supported the factory closed down right away.
Shayne, along with many others, were suddenly unemployed in a town with, equally suddenly, high unemployment. Eventually, he and his wife couldn’t meet their mortgage payments, so the bank foreclosed.
Now he was not only unemployed, but, along with his family, was homeless; he was what’s technically known as being seriously short of a buck.
But what’s this got to do with our PM, you ask.
Well, Morrison is an ardent follower of American style Wealth Theology. This preaches that if you’re poor it’s your own fault. You deserved it, so God made you poor.
So, according to Scott, Shayne deserved to be poor, otherwise he wouldn’t be in that sorry state.
On the other hand, Wealth Theology also teaches that the factory owner must have deserved to be rich and so God made him rich.
Well, I have two questions for Morrison.
What did Shayne do to deserve his situation? and
What did the factory owner do that made him so deserving of God’s largesse?
I’ll finish with a question for you, dear reader.
When you understand Morrison’s strongest beliefs, are you surprised that his govt:
> Cut penalty rates;
> Cut the NDIS;
> is giving huge tax cuts to the wealthiest among us?
No, me neither.
Be First to Comment