For Anti-Poverty Week 2024, I invented “the Vegemite Curve”, a graph plotting unit prices of an iconic Australian brand to demonstrate a poverty premium and how it costs more to be poor.
Profits and operational surpluses are treated very differently in these two government-created “markets”, with the result that NFP social service providers have limited ability to invest in organisational development and struggle with sustainability.
The most recent SA state budget shows interest payments increasing as a proportion of government expenditure, creating an opportunity cost for other expenditure possibilities. This should create an argument for tax reform to increase the revenue base, but the historic record for change is not good.
Justin O’Connor’s book, Culture Is Not An Industry, critiques the arts sector embrace of the description of itself as a “creative industry”. Yet the not-for-profit social service sector has similarly embraced broader economic-industry descriptors, so O’Connor’s critique is relevant there too – albeit in a different context. In particular, the foundational economy approach in O’Connor’s book raises questions about anti-poverty advocacy.
