Mining Billionaires

Commenting on Wayne Swans article in The Monthly - 

The 0.01 Per Cent: The Rising Influence of Vested Interests in Australia

Responding to one of the comments

@aussiegreg - re “Mining billionaires are not just speaking for themselves, but at the very least for their thousands of employees and tens of thousands of shareholders, including our superannuation funds.”

There is no way you should assume they speak for their workers. They simply buy their labour with $, and implicitly threaten them with loss of $ if they speak out against them.
Hey, if Palmer or Reinhardt are prepared to pay me, I’ll work for them. And then donate a large slice of my income to fund anyone willing to fight them.

Each is just one man/woman with one vote in our democracy. His/her vote, and his ideas, are no more worthy of consideration than mine, and no less. But he/she has the $$ to buy what they cannot sensibly argue for, their continued enrichment at the expense of our environment, our climate.

Those thousands of workers could just as easily work in Renewable Energy projects. But the .01% don’t want to invest there, because, screw the common good, that doesn’t make them as rich!

The minerals are a common good, and we should demand a decent return on letting them go. Don’t let the billionaires hoodwink you into thinking their fortune will be willingly shared, or used for the common good.

- Clive Palmer didn’t get his way in soccer, now he’s prepared to wreck the whole sport out of spite. Other people’s passion is just his plaything.
- Gina Reinhardt (who inherited her wealth) doesn’t like the way she is represented in parts of the press, so she wants to buy up that press. What will she care about real reporting and journalism. (Which is why I’ve just subscribed to NewMatilda!)

If you trust these billionaires, then you are a mug. At least Bill Gates and Warren Buffet made their billions without polluting the planet, and are determined to give the money back to the benefit of society. No sign of that with our “Rich Bastards”.