Arnold I tend to look at most things through the prism of the basic Individual inalienable rights.
Would I like it if all aircraft maintenance/pilot hiring moved offshore? (it isn't possible but lets ignore that for a minute)
No I wouldn't but have anyone's basic rights been trammeled? If I am a well trained, experienced engineer I can go offshore myself and earn more money, probably tax free. The Airline just shot themselves in the foot...which is their right...and I have exercised mine without hindrance.
What is the effect of the car industry being subsidised?
Well you and I are FORCED to provide employment/wages for people in an unsustainable industry. By being so forced you and I, and all tax payers, are being denied out individual human rights.
If those subsidies are not put in place people lose their jobs and may have to move in order to gain employment, may have to retrain/upgrade their qualifications/may have to accept lesser remuneration but their rights have not been infringed upon. Having to do so might mean they could be better off....or not...but their rights have not been infringed...their opportunities have not been hindered...you could argue that by subsidising their employment you are actually hindering them. And that subsidy money is available to benefit those or other people in various ways that society may decide on. They may be offered the opportunity of free training...see free education later.
There is no such thing as someone who CANNOT move to find work...only people who WILL NOT...maybe because they are convinced they have rights that they do not actually have.
I have worked in 4 countries in my chosen career. I have trained and studied and upgraded my skills and got to fly bigger aircraft and get paid more. I have thoughtfully exercised my inalienable individual rights to life, freedom and property to live my life based upon my best rational judgement.
But I don't have a right to the job I currently hold or the level of pay I get.
If tomorrow my employer decides I am out of here then I am out of here (and it has happened to me in the past) but my rights have not been infringed. Same if my employer decides to cut my pay by X% or remove staff travel privileges, as an example. My basic rights are intact - I can leave and take my skills with me - if enough of my workmates do the same by exercising their rights then my employer is in the ****..if not...
Society has chosen to provide a certain minimum level of social security for when people lose their jobs but a (growing) % of society has come to look upon social security as
a right and sundry socialist political groups have raised it to the point people actually don't NEED to work anymore. Social security is NOT a right because you and I are FORCED to pay them that money and THAT infringes on our rights.
We must all recognise that within society there are all sorts of people who are possessed of all levels of skill/work ethic/education etc.
A LOT of people are being paid too much money for what they produce..great for them but it means everything they produce costs more and YOU AND I are FORCED to pay that increased amount of money.
Houses, cars, food, clothes, movies, electricity...GOVERNMENT.
Next time you walk into a Govt department (CASA??), shop etc and get served by some sullen, barely literate, lazy employee ask yourself what YOU would pay that person based on your own best rational judgement if YOU owned the business...or would you employ them at all?
If a person only deserves or can command $10/hr then paying them $10/hr might actually motivate them to get off their ar$e and be better/improve themselves via education/increased qualifications..or not.
Paying them $40/hr and/or giving them a gold plated Govt pension only benefits them at everyone else's expense...Good idea
...ever wonder why YOU work so hard to fund your life aspirations and a reasonable retirement? Because you're being forced to fund, via taxation, the perceived 'rights' of an enormous number of people that, if you were their employer, you'd sack.
Paying them $10/hr doesn't infringe their basic inalienable rights...paying them $40/hr infringes yours.
MORAL OBLIGATION?
I have a moral obligation to provide my daughter with a good home, good education, clothes, medical care, moral guidance etc. I would argue she has a moral obligation to make best use of those things I provide.
We have a moral obligation to be honest in our day to day lives and respect the individual rights of EVERYONE we deal with every day while insisting ours are also so honored.
There is no such thing as moral obligation to give someone I have never met 'rights' to surf all day funded by the dole, or rights to a job or to an artificial wage. To believe so is foolish.
We, as a society, used to believe in privileges. The difference between a privilege and a 'right' is a 'right' does not have attendant responsibility whereas a privilege does.
I have a an absolute right to freedom of thought/speech. Despite what people think I have absolutely no responsibilities associated with those rights. There is
NO RIGHT to not be insulted - if I think your religion sucks then I have a right to say so and you have a right to disagree but you don't have a right to shut me up because that infringes my basic individual right to free speech. I
DO NOT have a right to act on my beliefs and seek to harm you or stop you practicing your religion because that infringes
YOUR fundamental individual right to life and freedom of thought/speech. If your religion seeks to enslave me to its ideals against my will then you/it have infringed my fundamental rights. Think about the societies that actually allow that to happen - countries where there is no separation of church and state - Saudi Arabia/Iran/Palestine spring to mind.
If society allows me the privilege of free education then I have a responsibility to society to make the best possible use of that privilege. If I am given free health care I have a responsibility to use just what I need and no more. If I think I have a right to these things those responsibilities disappear.
We allow the Govt the privilege of levying taxation to pay for stuff that society deems to be good public policy...in our best interest if you like. A govts ability to Tax its citizens is NOT a right because a right carries no responsibility and a Govt has an absolute responsibility not to over tax or waste tax. Governments of both persuasions ditched this responsibility at least 30 years ago...and we let them.
Think about the superannuation black hole (the govt has a different name for it that escapes me at the moment) that we have been hearing about for a decade or more. They're not talking about your pension they are referring ONLY to public service defined benefit schemes...a scheme the politicians/public servants believe they have 'a right' to. We have just been told that the amounts self funding retirees can sock away at reduced tax rates for their old age has been cut in half - our fundamental individual right to life has been infringed by our Govt so that they may fund their own/public service retirement schemes that we cannot be part of as they were deemed too expensive 30 years ago. Do you think public servants/politicians
need to sock away
ANY money each month for their retirement? No they don't...you're
FORCED to do so for them. You and I will be means tested and have just been told we will be working two extra years before we get fck all.
Do you wonder any longer why the Govt CANNOT provide a decent pension to mr and mrs average...or below average..who slaved their guts out for 40 years, paying too much tax, and just managed to pay off their home and educate 3 kids before age and/or health caught up to them at 65 and they find themselves retired with 40k in the bank and a likelihood of living another 15 years in relative poverty?
Do we have a greater 'moral responsibility' to them or to non productive people who relied on their 'right' to social security for 40 years?
Where is the outrage?
If we all
INSISTED on our basic, inalienable, individual rights and RESPECTED those of others society would be a healthier place.