Talkers vs Doers

Former Treasurer Joe Hockey once talked about 'lifters' and 'leaners'.

That was his term for those that do - the lifters, and those that rest on the work of others - the leaners. Hockey was attacked for his phraseology but I think he summed up the situation in Australia pretty well.

There are too few prepared to work hard, slowly build their business or personal finances, delay gratification to achieve a goal and take responsibility for their own actions.

Less than half of the people in this country actually pay more in tax than they receive back from the government. In some cases, that's perfectly understandable, but in most it's outrageous.

A growing number of Australians seem to think that the rest of us owe them something. They feel entitled to various grants, handouts and benefits on the basis of their skin colour, personal background,  creative expression or some other such indulgent nonsense.

Here's a few hints that might help. If you have tattoos or piercings all over your face, you might find it harder to get a job. If you wear some cultural garb to hide your face from the rest of the citizens, you might find it hard to get a job.

If you fail a drug test and can't be bothered getting up before 7am then you might find it hard to get a job.

And just because you've put your entire superficial life on Instagram and Youtube in a failed attempt to be an influencer, don't blame the rest of us when an employer thinks you have narcissistic personality disorder.

It's no good whining about it. Every individual makes these choices for themselves and it's not up to the rest of us to compensate you for them.

Unfortunately not everyone thinks like that.

According to a report released by the Institute of Public Affairs,  a small but influential ‘Talking class’ has undermined Australia’s egalitarian society by using the institutions they run as vehicles to promote their interests at the expense of ‘Doers’ – mainstream Australians who build and make.

The report, The Two Australias: The Talkers versus the Doers, demonstrates how Australia is becoming divided culturally, economically, and politically by the rise of a Talking class who are shaping the future of Australia around their interests at the expense of the Doers.

And the ranks of the pious pontificator is growing.  The 'Doers' have declined from 85% of the workforce in 1986 to just 78% in 2020.

To put it another way, in 1986 there were 5.5 Doers for every Talker while today there are only 3.6.

The reports author, Cian Hussey said:

“Doers are Australians who are embedded in reality because they build, create, and construct real things. Talkers are given to ideological obsessions because they are removed from practical.

There are too many Chief Diversity Officers and not enough miners, farmers, builders, and tradies."

The Talkers are the ones responsible for instilling the notion of something for nothing in our society. They recycle worn out theories and repackage them with new language promising fairness and equality.

They promote the notion that the reason people are falling behind is because of systemic racism or capitalism or the patriarchy. The inspire a sense of grievance and entitlement that is costing the country dearly.

The rise of the Talkers has cost Australian's an estimated $428 billion in foregone economic output in the last 20 years.

That money, instead of being available to create, develop and inspire our nation to greater prosperity, is trapped in the black hole of bureaucracy and officialdom.

American writer Joel Kotkin described this new class as "the clerisy, a group that makes its living largely in quasi-public institutions, notably, universities, media, the nonprofit world, and the upper bureaucracy.”

The Talkers prop themselves up, and those who look to follow in their footsteps with policy settings that further their cause.

The provide loans to get everyone to university for a diploma mill degree that scarcely equips them for the real world. The push carbon dioxide reduction schemes that provide them jobs at the expense of working Australians, despite the fact that the Doers, continually reject such schemes at the ballot box.

These Talkers are taking the country backwards. Australia needs more Doers and less chatterboxes.