Perth has its retinue of backward folk, with backward ideas and backward mindsets. It seems the electorate values sedation over a strong work ethic. This causes problems. Amongst the problems that we encounter in their pursuit of sloth, is the short work day.
Businesses in Perth open at say 8-9am, perhaps 10am…and run through to about 4-5pm. 6pm latest. Now, most government offices, big business, schools and universities and hospitals have their opening times when do you ask? That's right, 8am-5pm. The fundamental idea behind business in Perth is that everyone should go to work and return home at the same time. Students in university and TAFE need work, but they can't get any because all the businesses that would employ them are closed. This is quaint and certainly unbecoming of a city.
This is the issue: a lack of "extended trading hours" and weekend trading results in fewer people spending money, and fewer jobs available for people who have non-work commitments in the day time.
The fact that the moneyed folk, the people with jobs and consumer power, are working (often full-time) during 90% of the opening hours of all other business means that little meaningful business is actually attracted during the week. Often we may find truant (and broke) kids loitering about or old-age pensioners hunting for cheap groceries, far from what we'd look at and think "staple of business". And this is all well and good if you can expect an evening rush of thriving business, like you may find in Asia or in the eastern states, or in the United States of America. But alas, you will find none such in this sleepy joke of a city. The city, suburbs and all, shut down after 5pm. Everyone will retire to their suburban sprawl cottages and find reason to get upset about the lack of money in the household. Or that there was no food to be found in the household because no one could go shopping.
Shopping aside, there is the idea that business drives the engines of economy, and businesses regardless of size or funding need workers. And to be a worker, you need a business that will pay you. Consider the droves of university and TAFE students, or for that matter, high school students, for whom seeking a job and being gainfully employed is not just an accessory to their social standing but a tool of survival. Well okay, perhaps not for high school students, but for those in tertiary education, this is a stark reality.
Having undergone long periods of unemployment while still studying – one begins to realize why one is still unemployed. A student in a full-time vocational course will find it difficult to allow him or herself to gain an evening job. This is because the biggest casual work employers around, big businesses of the likes of Coles and Woolworth are disallowed by state law from routinely operating for any extended period during weekday evenings. It isn't like Coles and Woolies don't want to extend their operating hours, in a past referendum the people of WA actively voted against extended trading hours and weekend trading. Consequently, few people get their shopping done properly, and many students are robbed of a job opportunity.
And they wonder why so many of us are relying on youth allowance and welfare? Seriously, we'd rather work and live just over the poverty line somewhat more comfortably than have to rely on $244 a fortnight.
Seriously WA, freakin' wake up already. You've left this town uncultured (more in my next post), and as a result unemployed. Extend your trading hours and get with the rest of the world, we're sick of you wanting a "cruisy and relaxed lifestyle" at the expense of leaving people below the breadline. Simply untenable.
Tastefully disregarding the reliance on opinion and anecdote over data, let me pose a question.
ReplyDeleteWhy would the people of Western Australia actively vote to impede a change with all benefits and no cost?
My theory is that they value something more than the mere convenience of shopping after work, namely they are happy at not being forced to work through the night.
Think about this. In every place where extending trading exists, there are thousands of people who must choose between working through the night (with all the resulting problems) or starving. These places also have a much more robust workforce, who can supply the numbers necessary to fully staff business for extended hours.
You've also pointed out that there is no business during weekdays in Perth. Why? Because the only customers are locals. If you build shops full of things people don't really need, and aren't willing to waste money on, you have no right to complain when people don't come in and waste their money.
Perth is not a tourist city with high demand for shopping on demand, it is a large village. Its local economy still revolves squarely around people's day to day needs, and unless someone builds something worth crossing sand and sea to ... see, this won't change.
Extended trading hours would make large businesses happy because their overall profits would increase relative to their operational costs, but it'd have a much greater negative impact on the people as a whole. People would have to either work more hours than they should, or at times which prevent them from living normally. Family life would be disrupted (as it already is in the major urban centres of Sydney and Melbourne) such that children only see their parents two days a week.
Worst of all, students would be too focussed on working longer hours to earn money for stuff that really can and should wait a couple of years than sleeping enough each day.
No, WA made the right choice. I wish NSW and Victoria would rethink 24 hour trading.