By William Khoury

Every day, thousands of USYD students walk past countless posters of socialist propaganda, most notably on the Keith Murray Footbridge over City Road, and The Boardwalk, which form the main thoroughfare, linking the busiest parts of the campus on Eastern Avenue, with Abercrombie Street, forming the quickest path to Redfern Station.  Various organisations are well-known for exploiting the corridor between The Quadrangle and Redfern Station to gain publicity, however the most notorious by far is the Socialist Alternative (SALT).  From the hundreds of unsightly propaganda posters ruining the aesthetics of our beautiful campus, to the seemingly endless supply of cannon-fodder volunteers handing out flyers, it is no wonder that SALT has such a large influence on student politics and the beliefs of vulnerable students.  

Consequently, the majority of students which hold mainstream political views, whether left or right wing, generally ignore the radical ideas promulgated by SALT.  However, this mainstream ignorance has allowed SALT to strengthen its grips on disenfranchised students, as it has been allowed to operate with no external scrutiny.  If one analyses the statements promulgated by SALT with simple scientific, mathematic and economic theories, the ridiculousness becomes apparent.  

One common statement echoed by socialist posters and student representatives alike is: “the rich cause inflation.”  Anyone with a simple understanding of macroeconomics will realise the absurdity of this statement. Individuals with relatively low incomes will have a higher Marginal Propensity to Consume (MPC) than those with relatively higher incomes.  This is since a low-income earner is more likely to spend rather than save additional income which could make a more significant difference to their lifestyle, compared to a high-income earner, which is more likely to save additional income, as their needs and wants would likely have already been fulfilled.  Consequently, in a high-inflationary environment, when wage growth occurs due to the decreased supply of labour, as well as artificial minimum wage adjustments, it is in fact the low-income individuals that have the greatest effect in increasing Aggregate Demand (AD) in the economy, increasing demand-pull inflation. Furthermore, due to the Phillips Curve, there is a trade-off between employment and low inflation, thus in times of low unemployment, there is high inflation.

 This has been evident recently, as the unemployment rate was at a record-lows below 4% whilst the inflation rate has been at over 5%, being the highest in several decades, meanwhile during the Covid pandemic we had negative inflation whilst unemployment was above 7%.  Thousands of high-paying jobs didn’t just re-appear, but rather mostly low-income jobs were created as the economy recovered from the recession.  Therefore, it would be more correct to say “the poor cause inflation,” however this would generally be considered sensationalist at best, or rather insensitive, thus I refrain from distributing propaganda on such a topic.  Such a statement would still be far to incendiary, as it takes the causes of economic conditions at face value and does not consider other factors.

Unless we engage in discussion and critical thinking through rational thought and objective analysis, the radical left will continue to spread misinformation through sensationalist talking points which have no logical or theoretical basis.

William Khoury is a member of the Conservative Club