Quality of Life?

Are things that bad?

From the Deta Optimist..

The concept of "quality of life" should not be bandied about lightly. Achieving quality of life should be a populist goal, not an elitist one.
It would seem that capitalism has worked fairly well over the years and it is apparent that it is possible to make a profit, invest, buy, and make tax payments to a democratic government while also contributing to NGO environmental stewardship. (Sierra Club?)

In reference to Port Expansion, environmental and land use issues contribute to "quality of life" but they shouldn't hijack the notion of it at the expense of economic realities. The overused "quality of life" phrase is one we should think about a little more carefully before we consider putting the breaks on Capitalism. Take a moment to list real items and issues that would contribute to your "quality of life".

Some fundamentals that come to mind are a healthy economy, high employment rates, stable governance, housing, public education, public healthcare, domestic peace and healthy relationships with our trading partners. You can pick any other items to round out your list but you cannot deny the cornerstones. The relative health of the economic foundations in our country have been achieved through effective participation in trade. Here are some recent "quality of life" comments: "It's not enough to talk about preserving the environment to protect quality of life. We need to walk the walk"...one of four references to the term in a Port bashing diatribe by our MP John Cummins last week. In a recent presentation to a Senate committee Lois Jackson talks about the TFN's quality of life (as if she could profess to speak for them) "...and behind them a huge container storage area and a multi -track train yard. It will ruin their quality of life. But I guess money talks�. I think the TFN has already stated their position here.

Money does talk, or at least it has a voice, and it would be nice to see a local politician admit it for once rather than perpetuating the victim myth... that we are casualties of a never ending stream of assaults perpetrated by devious governments and business people who have no thought for our well-being. We should take a look in the mirror. Better yet, take a look around our homes and in our two car garages. Recognize how capitalism has contributed to your "quality of life". Then, make the correlation between what a port is, what infrastructure is and how these two things may have already made you a relatively happy person without you even knowing it. This is important.

Do we really believe that we inherently deserve some sort of life worthy of a philosopher king without any cause and effect? There are hundreds of millions of people in the world that would gladly take a spot in our issue assaulted shoes.

In the case of Port Expansion, prevention is an outcome that some will hope for. Mitigation of build-out is a positive undertaking that can be engaged in by many more, but a combination of mitigation and adaptation may ultimately benefit most and that is what it is really all about.