Oh Joe, get a good job? If only it were that simple - Women's Agenda

Oh Joe, get a good job? If only it were that simple

“Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because it’s not a problem to you personally” #StopTheTeaParty

 

I don’t doubt Joe Hockey has good intentions.  I can’t fathom that any politician would intentionally seek out opportunities to demonstrate their disconnect with the electorate as readily as Joe does without it occurring by default, not design.

The trouble is Joe’s default setting reveals a damning flaw: he’s disconnected from reality. He’s unfamiliar with the real world in which most voters reside.

His comment yesterday that housing affordability would be resolved if people simply got a “good job that paid well” makes this disastrously apparent.

Is it too much to expect an elected representative, the Treasurer no less, to recognise that good jobs that pay well aren’t exactly in abundant supply?

That they’re not readily available to anyone who just puts their hand up for a high salary?

That plenty of “good” jobs that our society, communities and economy rely upon – like nursing, teaching, policing – don’t “pay well”?

That plenty of people work in “good jobs”, jobs they have studied at university for or spent years training for, and still don’t take home salaries that render real estate in capital cities affordable? (On that, whilst it might be an option for some nurses, teachers and police, for example, to relocate to regional areas, a mass exodus would present difficulties for the capital cities that require hospitals, schools and police stations.)

That it’s not for lack of effort, lack of hard work, lack of training, lack of desire or lack of luck that housing affordability is a problem for Australians?

Our economy doesn’t even generate median salaries for all employment-seeking Australians. Surely the Treasurer doesn’t need a lay person like myself to point out why, it’s then preposterous to suggest the economy could generate six-figure salaries for any Aussie willing to have a go?

And yet it seems these are the points us lay-voters have to make to our Treasurer.

None of this is to say that housing affordability is an easy nut to crack. It’s not. It’s a complex problem but what shouldn’t be complex is politicians being able to recognise the reality for the individuals they represent.

I am extremely fortunate. I have a tertiary education and a well-paying job. My husband is similarly fortunate. We both earn well above the minimum wage and work extremely hard but the housing market in Sydney is unattainable for us at this stage. I don’t say this to garner sympathy as we are genuinely very fortunate, I say it to demonstrate Hockey’s flawed reasoning. Even people lucky enough to have good jobs can’t afford housing in Sydney. 

I don’t expect our Treasurer to fix that, but I do expect him to understand that.  Whether Joe Hockey’s ignorance is wilful or benign is immaterial. Either way he is out of touch.

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