In the short video, the multimillionaire had a good old whinge about how the pandemic had shown workers that they can be paid for not doing much at all and that we “need to see pain in the economy”.
At the start of the minute-long video, he said, “People decided that they really didn’t want to work so much anymore, through Covid.
“Tradies have been paid a lot to do not too much in the last few years, and we need to see that change.
“We need to see unemployment rise. Unemployment needs to jump to 40-50 per cent in my view. We need to remind people that they work for the employer and not the other way around,” he added.
“We gotta kill that attitude, and that has to come through hurting the economy.
“We need to see pain in the economy,” he continued. “We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around. There’s been a systematic change where employees feel the employer is extremely lucky to have them, as opposed to the other way around. It’s a dynamic that has to change.”
At the time of writing, the video has been watched more than 25 million times in just three days. Financial Review closed comments on the thread and I will give you no prize for guessing why.
Even US democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez commented on the video with a “reminder that major CEOs have skyrocketed their own pay so much that the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay is now at some of the highest levels ‘ever’ recorded”.
Many have also used social media to remind everyone that Gurner got his start in the business world with financial help from his boss. Even his grandfather reportedly handed him $34,000 to secure a loan (which I’m guessing he wouldn’t have needed if he’d skipped brunch a few extra times).
The real troubling thing is not that this one property bro thinks this way. Gurner just said the quiet part out loud. The problem is that his views seem to be shared by so many rich-listers like him, who see workers as numbers on a spreadsheet and can’t comprehend that human beings might want to, you know, have a life beyond work, with comfort and enjoyment in their days. Shocking, I know. The poors are out of control.
It’s important to note that, on top of Gurner’s property portfolio, he also has a “wellness” company, Saint Haven. I’m not sure how he reconciles his mission to get everyone on their wellness journey with his suggestion that unemployment should skyrocket to 40 or 50 per cent. I don’t know about you, but being unemployed and unable to pay my bills doesn’t do wonders for my wellbeing.
Speaking of that business venture of his, staff at the wellness and anti-ageing business had to be sent an internal memo by a senior manager assuring them that Gurner’s comments were not about them.
For what is worth, more than a day after the comments went viral, Gurner decided he should probably issue an apology.
Taking to LinkedIn (of course), Gurner said he “made some remarks about unemployment and productivity in Australia” that he “deeply regrets” and “were wrong”.
He continued, “There are clearly important conversations to have in this environment of high inflation, pricing pressures on housing and rentals due to a lack of supply, and other cost of living issues. My comments were deeply insensitive to employees, tradies and families across Australia who are affected by these cost-of-living pressures and job losses.
“I want to be clear: I do appreciate that when someone loses their job it has a profound impact on them and their families and I sincerely regret that my words did not convey empathy for those in that situation.”
So yeah, guys, calm down. The millionaire is sorry that he told you we need to see pain in the economy, during a cost of living crisis. He didn’t mean it. Or at least he didn’t mean for so many of us to hear it.
