Bronze Handcuffs: The Real Reason Productivity is Down the Drain

The world is the way it is because of incentive systems.

If there’s no incentive to work hard beyond a certain point, then guess what happens?

People stop working hard.

This simple truism is the real reason productivity in the Australian economy is down the drain.

If you can work a normal 9-5 and earn $120k, why should you bother putting in extra hours for your boss to maybe get to $150k after a few years of extra effort?

No, seriously, think about it.

What’s the point?

Is your quality of life actually going to be any different in the modern Australian economy with this increase in pay?

Unless you have rich parents, you’re going to be facing a pretty similar predicament be it on $120k or $150k.

You’re probably still going to be renting a dirty dogbox with a few other people, driving the same car, and going to the same restaurants.

Which means you have bronze handcuffs.

In other words, you are stuck.

Chained to the office desk like a slave.

Not much reason to do anything extra at all.

If the idiot you grew up with down the road is now on $80k and able to buy a nice apartment because his parents gifted him $300k for a deposit, but you are on $150k and can’t buy anything because your parents are not ‘property rich’, then what’s the point?

What’s the point of slogging?

You’re gonna be facing the same future anyway.

Your salary is now effectively worthless, because the marginal difference in quality of life between different ranks as you climb the corporate ladder is effectively zero.

And it’s like that the entire way up the ladder.

It doesn’t matter if you’re on $120k or $200k now.

The fact of the matter is, if you don’t already own property, or a large amount of assets (e.g. bitcoin), you’re basically screwed.

Psychologically, financially, socially - you will suffer.

And as a result, the smartest people will simply leave the country.

They’ll look at the system, decide the game is rigged, and exit.

Why bother training for several years to be a lawyer or doctor in this environment? What’s the point?

You’ll make it to the ‘top’ and be in the same position as you were at the ‘bottom’.

The real Australian economy is being destroyed, yet on paper everyone who owns property is getting ‘rich’.

I wonder, how rich will they feel when there’s no one to defend them if they are accused of a crime they did not commit?

Or if, God forbid, they receive a disastrous medical diagnosis and their doctor can barely speak English?

Or if the engineers who build bridges decide to leave, and we replace them with foreign labour with far worse qualifications, who cut corners?

We are facing an impending competency crisis, downstream of the productivity crisis.

It is inevitable.

And for what?

So our government can continue pandering to who?

The property lobby? The banking industry? Globalists? The Indian PM? All of the above?

The government is working for everyone, but you.

And you’re stuck in bronze handcuffs because of it.