Those criticising the Occupy Sydney (and the rest of the Australian Occupy events for that matter) on the basis that the Australian economy isn’t as fucked bad as the American economy ought to look at the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data for Wealth Distribution:
- The richest 20% now own 62% of household wealth.
- The bottom 60% of people own a whopping 18% of household wealth.
- The bottom 20% own just 1% of total household wealth.
- In the last years, the household worth of the richest 20% has increased at almost 4 times the rate of the bottom 20%.
- 1.2 million households have a total net worth of $50,000.
- 77,000 households (read: families) owe more in debt then there total household worth
So yes, while we’re not quite as bad as the US, we should have the decency to admit that there is serious structural problems with the Australian economy. Considering this accumulation of wealth is happening in relative boom years, where we all supposedly benefit, one has to wonder how the state of inequality in Australian would fair if the country was to slide into recession on the back of a US downturn and continuing sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
So to those Occupying Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and those occupying Cities around the World, I say continue to fight the good fight, no matter what the cynics say. Those in power have taken so much and have no intention of stopping, so it is left for us to say no more.
