EXPRESS LOVE WITH A VOTE.
The ridiculous doctor, perhaps in an attempt to seem relatable to disinterested voters, made the preposterous point that you may be tempted to vote Right for tax cuts for businesses in order to provide more opportunities. That is a nonsense on two counts. One, larger businesses, such as supermarkets, if they have a choice of employing a person or investing in technology, will choose the latter, in order to increase profits, and two, tax cuts for small businesses might sound good in theory, but for a small businessperson to provide such opportunities, they have to have sufficient business to be able to employ another person. So, if we take a mechanic, that mechanic has to have enough cars come through and have a good reputation. If the mechanic wants to take on an apprentice, they need to be able to have the time to supervise the apprentice and, once qualified, if they offer them a job, they have to ensure that the mechanic is not taking shortcuts or being dishonest, and not charging for work that isn’t done. A person can have the best teacher, but that doesn’t teach them honesty!
This week, a friend of mine shared a meme that said, “Don’t tell someone you love them and then vote for a party whose agenda will hurt them.” Now, voting for a party that will make someone pay their fair share of tax will not hurt them, and let’s not forget that a billionaire or trillionaire has the means to take advantage of tax loopholes and tax breaks that a struggling businessperson does not. And when it comes to penalty rates, here is the alternative side to consider: sometimes, the console operator at the filling station is the breadwinner who does it as a second job, as the family struggles to make ends meet, or they are the second earner. So, they go without family time on a public holiday to earn some money. Making the business owner pay penalty rates won’t hurt them; but depriving the worker of a reward for a sacrifice will hurt them. The ridiculous doctor laments parents putting their kids in child-care where they cannot receive affection from staff, to which I say, that is lamenting a bygone era. I remember the days, when I was younger, when supermarkets closed at 12 Noon Saturdays and petrol stations were only open all weekend every second weekend. Some people were poor but happy, and Saturday afternoon, if you worked in retail or pouring or selling petrol was typically spent doing the lawn and washing the car and Sunday was a day for church and family. So, what could be said to businesses is, “Okay, you don’t want to pay penalty rates or double time, that’s fine, but the shops will close at 6pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and open until 9pm Thursday and close at 2pm Saturday and not open at all on Sunday, and THEN we’ll see what happens.”
On a social level, however, there are hard-right wing parties, and leaders, as we have seen, who are hellbent on denying or rolling back protections for vulnerable people. A particularly despicable US President wanted to roll back protections for transgender service people and transgender people generally, and roll back abortion rights (some states already have). You cannot tell an LGBTIQA person that you love them and then vote for a party that is opposed to their human rights. That makes you a hypocrite.
And let’s not forget this, far more LGBTIQA people have committed suicide due to fear or actual familial rejection or harmful gay conversion therapy than business owners have due to paying more tax. So don’t be a hypocrite; support the rights of the vulnerable!