The man who eats in idleness what he has not himself earned, is a thief, and in my eyes, the man who lives on an income paid him by the state for doing nothing, differs litte from a highwayman who lives on those who travel his way. Outside the pale of society, the solitary, owing nothing to any man, may live as he pleases, but in society either he lives at the cost of others, or he owes them in labour the cost of his keep; there is no exception to this rule. Man in society is bound to work; rich or poor, weak or strong, every idler is a thief." [From Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Émile"]
How I wished that Centrelink kept Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Émile" as their user manual. It was written twenty-seven years before the French Revolution. Do we need another revolution before my wish comes true?
