Ludicrously well-paid CEOs should not be telling us how to slash public spending.
The Commission of Audit today releases its long-awaited recommendations on reining in the budget deficit.
Key figures of the Business Council of Australia (BCA), which represents the CEOs of the top 100 companies, were tasked by the Abbott government to lead the audit.
On one level, having the corporate sector inject its core skill set of financial rigour into the budget makes public policy sense.
However, a new treatise on the history of wealth inequality provides an important context on why big business adjudicating on public spending is highly problematic.
Capital in the 21st Century by French economist Thomas Piketty sounds like a dry read.
Yet it has captured the attention of policy makers around the world since its release earlier this year.
The book has also gained popular acclaim in a way that underscores how its simple and compelling argument has touched a public nerve.
Having analysed wealth data across three centuries Piketty’s core contention is that income inequalities in most developed countries in the early 21st century have regressed to 19th century levels.
A small economic elite – amounting to around one per cent of the population – now accrue larger and larger amounts of a country’s wealth.
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