According to data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, the inequality in real estate ownership is staggering.
Land values have rapidly escalated from $1.2 trillion in 1996 to $4.1 trillion in 2010. In 2002, the top 20 per cent of Australian households by wealth own 57 per cent of all net property. The latest ABS Household Wealth and Wealth Distribution report for 2009-10 shows that the top 20 per cent of households by net worth owns 59 per cent of property by net value, a slight increase from 2002. The top 5 per cent own 43 per cent of equity investments and 70 per cent of net business assets. Most wealth is transferred from one generation to another within a handful of wealthy families. Although it is difficult to accurately assess, studies generally put this at around 60 per cent to 80 per cent of all wealth.
The wide-scale intervention by government is to subsidise and protect capital. Political parties contend that rights for labour (social welfare, minimum wage legislation, workplace rights, unionisation) cause disruptions in labour markets and thus should be cut back. Strangely enough, nothing is said about the power of corporations to manipulate the markets. Rights for labour are challenged but, yet, the rights possessed by businesses which benefit the rich are not even commented upon. While landowners and investors are getting the free ride of their lives, the poor and the workers are counselled to develop a strong work ethic and stop relying upon social welfare. Of course, the rich have never seen a problem with welfare, as long as it goes to them. They have always fought a bitter class war to ensure they own the wealth of the nation and receive the giant share of it.
The policies that enrich the capitalist even further are being so effectively implemented by governments that it is concentrating more wealth and more income into the hands of the few that it leaves too little for too many. The rich class are successfully prevailing in the class war despite their claims to the contrary.
Land values have rapidly escalated from $1.2 trillion in 1996 to $4.1 trillion in 2010. In 2002, the top 20 per cent of Australian households by wealth own 57 per cent of all net property. The latest ABS Household Wealth and Wealth Distribution report for 2009-10 shows that the top 20 per cent of households by net worth owns 59 per cent of property by net value, a slight increase from 2002. The top 5 per cent own 43 per cent of equity investments and 70 per cent of net business assets. Most wealth is transferred from one generation to another within a handful of wealthy families. Although it is difficult to accurately assess, studies generally put this at around 60 per cent to 80 per cent of all wealth.
The wide-scale intervention by government is to subsidise and protect capital. Political parties contend that rights for labour (social welfare, minimum wage legislation, workplace rights, unionisation) cause disruptions in labour markets and thus should be cut back. Strangely enough, nothing is said about the power of corporations to manipulate the markets. Rights for labour are challenged but, yet, the rights possessed by businesses which benefit the rich are not even commented upon. While landowners and investors are getting the free ride of their lives, the poor and the workers are counselled to develop a strong work ethic and stop relying upon social welfare. Of course, the rich have never seen a problem with welfare, as long as it goes to them. They have always fought a bitter class war to ensure they own the wealth of the nation and receive the giant share of it.
The policies that enrich the capitalist even further are being so effectively implemented by governments that it is concentrating more wealth and more income into the hands of the few that it leaves too little for too many. The rich class are successfully prevailing in the class war despite their claims to the contrary.
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