Thoughts on Freedom

Kevo brought this to my attention in the Discussion thread:

“KEVIN Rudd has pledged to keep a close eye on ABC Learning Centres to protect parents…..”

Bad luck for staff, shareholders, suppliers etc if the thing sinks (whatever the merits of Mr Groves kiddy empire).  And interesting prioritisation of his time by the PM.

The main game seems to remain the wildly endangered Australian species “Working Families”.

My mother maintains this is a euphemism for ‘working class’, but it seems a lot less inclusive to me..what if you aren’t working, not married and/or don’t have kids – Kevin and Julia don’t want to know you or what ?

And they have a poll you can participate in – “should childcare centres be run for profit ?”.  Do a have a click to see what folks in your local area think, but no prizes for guessing what the majority of participants want  (Freebies, freebies).

The way this trend is going I would like to suggest a simpler poll would be “What do Working Families actually believe they SHOULD pay for themselves ?

a) widescreen plasma TVs
b) holidays
c) movie tickets
d) all of the above, or
e) none – The Gov’mnt should pay for everything – they’ve got piles of money and we are just Working Families”

Or I am getting unduly cynical ??

I guess we shouldn’t be that surprised: they’ve already been talking about free childcare.  But the real depressing thing is the number of people who would applaud a government takeover.  After all, another Australian headline declares “Parents hope market won’t steal their centre“

Perhaps some of these shareholders were merely rent-seekers anyway, hoping to profit from further government childcare subsidies… Actually, that thought makes me feel a little better.