23 April

To reframe the debates around Council rates. They’re framed in these debates as costs to residents, charges. Like buying something at a shop. But Council rates are really public investments. They fund infrastructure that enables the community to grow in all sorts of other ways. They’re not a one-off charge, like buying a restaurant meal or take-away, or going to see a show, or taking a trip. Those are much greater costs for most residents, discretionary one-off payments that create no longer-term investment in community life. They’re lifestyle costs. I’ve shared here before the relative spend from most residents on these two ‘costs’. The average household is spending many multiples of what it pays in rates, on lifestyle costs. We’re not investing in community, we’re funding individual lifestyles. Again, that’s kidult culture. ‘Living our best lives’. Like a town is a tourist resort. Civilisation comes from public *investment*. In the infrastructure of collective life, that generates more community facility, over time.