Geoff's Blog - Kevin the great giver
If, perchance, it is more blessed to give than to receive, then Kevin 07, our chairman, wonderfully endowed with the much media maligned John Howard’s careful savings and debt elimination, must feel within himself a sense of entitlement to blessings beyond measure.
See Kevin give $1000 to a huge number of the grateful populace. Of course it’s a measure to stimulate the economy. Vote buying? Goodness! How could I conceive of such a thing in the face of his generosity? Forget that a good proportion of this money will end up in the pokies, TAB or on certain alcoholic beverages, or even a Chinese manufactured flat screen TV. How could I not understand that this is instant vote grabbing, rather than a considered and sustained pension increase, where it would actually do the economy a world of good?
Six billion to the car companies? As Stephen Mayne asked, why did he give them that money? For that, he could have bought General Motors America in its depleted state, lock, stock and Holden too.
And so it goes on. His largesse is directed at any highly visible rescue or photo opportunity. But what is it doing for the economy really? Has he any idea about what makes this economy go? I am beginning to suspect not, in the strongest terms. He will bail out the failures (like the NSW State Labor Government), but the real people who make this economy go – the small business owners who risk their own personal capital - are to be given a significantly different present. IR laws which will take the country back to the days of draconian union influence over the workplace, and to a fear of actually taking risk and putting on employees.
And so, as the sun pulls away from the shore, and our economy sinks slowly in the west (bye bye Chinese demand for our minerals), Kevin is hooked on a giving binge. Of course, “It’s the government this, and the government that,” from the mouth of Kevin and his busy media spinners. But when he says “government” try reading “taxpayer”. There is no free giving. Someone has to pay in the end and that is the PAYE worker and the small businessman. It is “us” who are giving in such largesse. And we will pay. These handouts are the future debt for us, our children and grandchildren.
Kevin does not, and may never, understand that true giving comes at a cost to the giver. The story of Christmas, from which we take our giving cue, is one where the givers do so at great personal cost to themselves, and those around them. Jesus’ mother gives the world a son described as a saviour at great personal cost, in the isolation from and the derision of, her very family. Wise men leave their home and travel far to present gifts to a baby, they will never see again, in response to an astrological event. These are people who understand the true nature of giving.
True giving is not generated by debt on a credit-card. It is that personal decision by the giver to put aside their own desires and, whatever it costs, enhance the life of another by the gift of themselves or something which has personally cost them to bring.
In the words of a letter writer summing up Christmas, “ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality a thing to be grasped but emptied himself and became a servant being born in the likeness of men.” This is the true meaning of Christmas and of giving. Perhaps Kevin and all of us need to rediscover this as we generously give ourselves both a food-fest and credit-card hangover this year.
I am also very pleased with the bonus--and pleased to get it--- I also notice that the chemist rate has gone up to $6--and aslo the phone and internet allowance also--and also the U/ allowance--not by a lot but every paenny is welcome