Rodney Hide: In praise of the industrious

Goodwin knows how to produce. He has worked, saved and planned. He has provided for himself and for others. Photo / Jason Oxenham.

We are fast becoming a nation of bludgers lacking in all self-respect and pride. There should be no surprise in this.

For years our political and moral leaders have praised the indolent at the expense of the industrious. We have been told through a constant drumbeat of commentary that the poor are somehow virtuous and the rich evil.

We are taught we have a right to food, a house, a job and a living wage. It has never been explained what it takes to produce the food, build a house, employ another or earn a wage.

We look to government to give us what we want when we want it. We know our rights but nothing of our responsibilities.

Into this public arena bravely stepped 74-year-old Ron Goodwin to explain landlords should be wary of being too kind to their tenants.

"If you give a tenant an inch out of the kindness of your heart they take a mile and expect more and more as time goes on."

Oh my goodness. Cue the outrage.

First into the news was Reverend Mark Beale: "He's a multimillionaire who can afford to help people. He can afford for them to take advantage of him. People are not treating houses as homes any more but as money-making ventures."

For the reverend it seems if an elderly man is rich it's okay to take advantage of him. If someone wants something, give it to them, and the housing problem is people working to make a dollar.

In just three sentences the reverend summarised the mindset of our political and moral leaders.

The thinking is the poor are poor because the rich are rich. That creates the moral justification to take from them.

There is no understanding of how handouts corrupt a person, robbing them of all pride and incentive.

The reverend does not appear to understand the system of profit and loss that provides the very things he is so anxious to distribute. He doesn't understand how the houses he wants to hand out got here.

He wants to carve the cake but doesn't know how it's baked.

Our leaders know how to pontificate but not how to produce.

Goodwin knows how to produce. He has worked, saved and planned. He has provided for himself and for others. He is a producer not a taker.

In an honest and productive society Goodwin would be revered, not reviled.

He would be looked up to, learned from and emulated. We would be better for it.

He knows through experience that handouts create nothing but dependency and misery. His mindset is of productivity and honesty.

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