It's time we called out Economic Correctness. It's gone too far. The minute you voice even the smallest doubt about the Current Way of Things (neoliberal capitalism) you get hammered. If, for example, you ask why large multinationals should profit from aged care, the guardians of Economic Correctness look at you funny. Either they don't quite get what you mean or they do get it and cast you as an enemy of democracy.

We don't talk about Economic Correctness. But seriously, it's gone mad. I mean, the Prime Minister wants to outlaw boycotts against the powers that run the Current Way of Things — the ones we are meant to be grateful to because they sometimes pay taxes into the public coffers. But in the Creation Myth of the Current Way they're not even really public coffers. Since they are supposedly filled by the current powers (may they be blessed!) they are decidedly private. And private is good, private is best. It means you get what you put in, that those who have a go get a go.

The Creation Myth teaches that they created the wealth and that we must thank them because they share a little of this through jobs and taxes. They let some of the wealth trickle down. But it is theirs to do with as they wish. They built this country, through hard work, risk, and a level of ingenuity that you and I can only dream of. Most of all, they make the economy strong. And we must all make sacrifices for the economy. If we don't it is our children who will suffer.

We also need to adapt to change by giving up some of our rights. How can the economy stay strong if we adhere to this nonsense of collectively bargaining for better wages and conditions? We are paid too much as it is. And all this penalty rates nonsense, and being treated to sweets like annual leave and sick leave, how is the economy going to stay competitive if we behave like naughty children?

As for unions they belong in the bin. Better for the economy if we each cut our own deals with our employers. They need the flexibility to be able to pay us when they need us and leave us waiting when they don't. Better for the economy, better for everyone (for the economy is everyone) if we are kept on our toes and learn to practise a little discipline, get a bit more competitive with each other.

Which is why we shouldn't pamper the unemployed. If we make life miserable for them we gain a bit more leverage in keeping wages down and stripping conditions. There's nothing as bracing for a worker as the fear of unemployment. Why should the powers pay more for our labour when someone else can offer it for less?

And why should they have to give away huge (to us, not to them) chunks of their hard-earned profits because all of us want too much stuff for free — like education, health, and a helping hand from time to time? Why can't we learn to do as they do, and pay for what we need individually, like grown-ups?

"Her analysis constitutes a serious offence against Economic Correctness. It is unflinchingly honest. And this is exactly what we need."

As for us organising ourselves together to do anything, and the whole notion that there are some things that should not be privatised, these are the perfect examples of Economic Incorrectness and they should be corrected! It's when we are allowed this childish nonsense that you get situations like people wanting to protest on the streets. As things stand, it's the powers who have to foot the bill for such theatrics.

If any of the above doesn't quite pass the credibility test, then perhaps you too feel that Economic Correctness has gone too far. On ABC's Q&A recently, anti-ageism advocate, Ashton Applewhite, said: 'I would say capitalism is probably the biggest driver, in that we don't respect people who don't contribute in conventional economic terms, which means children and retired people, even though they contribute in many ways that are harder to measure, and often enable other people to contribute in conventional ways.'

This analysis constitutes a serious offence against Economic Correctness. It is unflinchingly honest. And this is exactly what we need. Yes, you will be called out for blaspheming against the orthodoxy of Economic Correctness. But how can we stay silent when market fundamentalism has crept into every corner of our lives, transforming the social into the commercial, the essential into the commodifiable, displacing an ethic of care with a market for the purchase of care?

We are in the thick of an aged care crisis that has been constructed with the bricks of Economic Correctness. Our governments hold that structures that are, by definition, attuned to the logic of putting profits before people will, left to their own devices with loads of public money, magically start putting people before profits. And we have been taught not to question this sacred belief.

It is time to question the orthodoxy, time to ask, not how we can accomodate the commodification of everything, but how we can reclaim the commons, and begin to democratise, rather than privatise, what should be there for all of us. As the Turkish proverb goes: 'No matter how far you've gone down the wrong road, turn back.'

Dr John Falzon is Senior Fellow, Inequality and Social Justice at Per Capita. He is a sociologist, poet and social justice advocate and was national CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia from 2006 to 2018. He is a member of the Australian Services Union.

Main image credit: shutterjack via Getty