2008 Social Justice Statement - A Rich Young Nation

In this year's Social Justice Statement, A Rich Young Nation: The challenge of affluence and poverty in Australia, Australia's Catholic Bishops condemn consumerism and the emergence of a severely disadvantaged underclass. The  statement also questions the selfish attitudes of wealthy taxpayers who resist tax rises and which could allow governments to provide services to meet the needs of the nation's poor and vulnerable.

Australia's care for the less fortunate had not kept pace with the economic growth of the past 15 years so that now even households which could be defined as wealthy felt they were deprived and struggling, the Bishops say.

The drive for increased wealth was trapping workers in a cycle of over work, overconsumption and debt to achieve material success, the Bishops argue. This aspirational rat race was fuelled by consumerism and aggressive marketing that placed "self interest and competition for material things above the idea of a society where we are all in service to one another."

The Bishops also renewed their call of 25 years ago when, at the end of world recession, they called for the common wealth of Australia to be dedicated to the common good.

The full statement can be accessed at: www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au/