There is nothing like a new fashion among the elites. It could be Teslas, a shift to Vale from Whistler for winter breaks or a move from Bulgari to Channel couture.
But this Spring it is none of those. No. The latest trend among the wankers is wages growth virtue signalling! To wit, from Bill Shorten today as he begs business for pennies:
Right now – for one of the very few times in Australian history – we’ve got union leaders, business leaders, economists and analysts of every stripe on the same page…For everyone’s sake – working Australians need a pay rise.”
This followed last week’s effort by the Real Estate Treasurer Scott Morrison as he cuts penalty rates:
…increasing what Australians earn is one of my most important objectives.
And, of all people, CEO of the The Big Sleazy, and employer of 50k people who he is not giving a pay rise to, Ian Narev:
The absolute key and No.1 question we should be demanding of policymakers is for households to feel better off, and the No.1 metric is wage growth.
It was all kicked off by none other than the million dollar man himself, RBA and fashion governor, Phil Lowe, as he defends mass immigration and pumps house prices:
The crisis is really in real wage growth.When any of us feel like there is more competition out there you’re less inclined to put your price up. People value security and one way you can get a bit more security is not to demand a wage rise. At some point, one imagines that’s going to lead to workers being prepared to ask for larger wage rises. If that were to happen it would be a good thing.
To actually see higher wages growth we’ll need:
- lower immigration and closed visa loop holes;
- wholesale productivity reform;
- competition, industrial relations and tax system reform, plus
- some actual inflation.
None of which is coming. So you can expect the virtual signalling trend to accelerate while nothing is actually done to raise wages which, for the first time in modern history, are falling in nominal terms:
Wankers.
