Reality TV show, Big Brother, recently returned to the small screen.

This time — after a four-year break — it appears on Channel Nine rather than Channel Ten.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the format, so I’ll explain it in brief…just in case you’ve been lucky enough to avoid this televisual abomination.

Earlier this year, more than 10,000 Australians applied to be a contestant on the show.

Most likely the application process involved writing a wacky letter and filming an even wackier video…to show the producers just how the applicant is outgoing, hopefully controversial, but most of all, conforming.

At the end of the process, the producers picked the winning applicants, who get to star on prime-time TV.

The reward? To be locked up with a bunch of other wacky funsters for an unspecified period of time. To wake up and go to bed when they’re told…to eat food what and when they’re told…and to do anything else demand by ‘Big Brother’.

Of course, it’s easy to say that Big Brother is just harmless fun. But it’s more than that. It also highlights a disturbing and growing trait among some people…

The desire to control and the willingness to be controlled.

Both are equally dangerous, because those who enjoy being controlled hate those who prefer individualism and freedom.

They hate choice. And because they submit to the controllers, they believe everyone else should submit too.

To them it’s only fair.

But the Big Brother applicants aren’t the only ones who enjoy oppression. But at least for them it’s voluntary. That’s not always the way in the real world…

It’s Not Weird to Want Freedom

Control and oppression is the whole game plan of statists and central planners. Their aim is to take power and money from your hands and put it in the hands of a godlike leader.

And if you speak out against it, they’ll say you’re weird. But what’s weird about not wanting the government to tell you what to do?

What’s weird about not wanting to live like a battery hen in government-approved housing? Or not wanting the government telling you what to eat, when to eat, and what healthcare you should have.

And perhaps most of all, there’s nothing weird about not wanting to join a group that punishes success and rewards failure.

Those things aren’t weird. It’s just striving for natural human rights…the right to self-determination.

But while freedom is a natural right for each person, it’s also the enemy of central planners and maniacal leaders.

Why? Well, unless these people deny you liberty, the godlike leader doesn’t have any power.

Someone can only have power over you if they deny you the same power. That’s how all hierarchies work.

Sacrificing Jobs for Power

Take the trade union movement. Unionists love controlling others. But those who join trades unions aren’t always voluntary members.

Try working on a building site without a union ticket…or most other blue-collar jobs. If you don’t want to join a union, then get ready for violence, vitriol, or even unemployment.

You’re either with them or you’re against them. Think about it. Why do trade unions rarely negotiate a pay cut in order to save jobs?

The answer is simple. If everyone keeps their job but gets a pay cut, all the employees will hate the boss and the union.

But, if the union can keep wages high for some of the workers by sacrificing a few jobs, there’s a different result. Then only those who lose their job will hate the union. Those who remain will still pay their union dues and will still fight for the union because they’ve kept their job.

It’s all about having power, keeping power, and gaining more power.

The union movement’s great claim to fame — superannuation — is a great example.

The unions always claim that they’re working to protect the workers…that they care about your job and about your retirement.

But it’s not true. The truth is that super was never about looking after union members. It was never about caring for workers’ retirement. It was and still is about power.

The unions sacrificed higher wages for their members in favour of super contributions for one simple reason…

When wages go in to the workers’ pocket, the worker can save or spend it as they wish. That’s just how it should be.

But, that’s no use for an organisation that wants to control people. So the best way the union movement could get more control was to follow the lesson of government…

Unions Use ‘Muscle’ to Get Your Money

The government taxes you so it can control your money and your life. The more you have, the less you need to rely on government. The union movement simply copied this. But they couldn’t call it a tax because unions don’t have the power to tax.

So they had to come up with a different way to control your money and your life — superannuation.

The union movement conspired with the government to take money from your pocket and put it into the control of the unions. Not directly of course, but indirectly, through union-owned industry super funds.

It was an inspired policy that would help the government and unions have even more control over the economy and you.

If you don’t believe me and think I’m talking baloney, then check this out. It’s all here in an article from the Sydney Morning Herald from 28 September, 1989:

 ‘The Treasurer, Mr Keating, has urged the trade union movement to use the billions of dollars generated by superannuation over the next 20 years to increase its own industrial clout.

‘Mr Keating told [trade union] Congress delegates that the development of union-run superannuation funds would give the union movement “institutional muscle” to supplement its already substantial industrial strength.

‘He suggested that the additional clout could prove a potent weapon against conservative administrations intent on eroding the power of the union movement.

‘In a “hostile political environment”, unions could flex their institutional muscle in the financial sector instead of simply “passing motions in the trades hall”, he said.’

You see, it’s all about power.

And the only way to get power is by taking your money and using it to control you.

Your Money to Get Further Out of Reach

In the past I’ve warned that one day the government will make you ‘an offer you can’t refuse’. That is, it will say that if you give up all the assets in your super fund you’ll qualify for a brand new Super Age Pension.

That you won’t have to worry about rising and falling stock markets, or the risk of investing. Instead, the government will care for you in retirement.

And it will do it with the help of another bunch of vested interests — the financial services industry.

As the Australian Financial Review reported this week:

‘The superannuation industry, economists and actuaries have urged the federal government to increase the age at which superannuation can be accessed, to avoid a $1 trillion short-fall in retirement savings.

‘The Institute of Actuaries, CAP Australia [CPA Australia? Ed] and the Financial Services Council say the gap between the superannuation “preservation age”, now 60, and the age pension age, now 65 should be narrowed. The Grattan Institute argues both ages should be increased to 70.

‘The Financial Services Council says the collective shortfall in savings for the working population that will live beyond average life expectancy now totals some $1 trillion.

‘The vast majority of workers have not saved enough money for the 20-plus years they may now spend in retirement, leaving successive federal governments open to an extreme financial burden, Financial Services Council chief executive John Brogden said:

“Every Australian should be encouraged to the best of their ability to become a self-funded retiree and take pressure off the government,” he said. The FSC says the age at which retirees can access their super should be raised from 60 to 62, in line with the increase in the age pension eligibility age from 65 to 67 that is due to come into force in 2023. That would decrease the so-called “longevity savings gap” of $1 trillion by $400 billion, Mr Brogden argued.’

So not only does the government force your employer to take money from your wages to deposit into an untouchable account, but now vested interests are trying to make sure you can’t get your hands on it until you’re 70 years old.

But what about the idea that the ‘vast majority of workers have not saved enough money’? That may have something to do with forcing people to buy things they don’t need, such as health insurance. Or maybe it’s because the government taxes away one-third of the average worker’s income.

Bottom line: whether it’s governments, lobby groups or trade unions, they’re all trying to increase their power…at your expense.

My aim is to help you by turning the tables on the central planners to get back the power they’ve taken from you.

Cheers,
Kris

www.moneymorning.com.au