Socialists have all the best insights and 100 years ago this week Sydney's clear-sighted Australian Worker saw clean through fat capitalism.
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"PATRIOTISM - AT A PRICE.
"WHY does it never seem to occur to anyone that, when his country is in dire straits [with the Great War underway] he should lend it money without charging interest?
"When the nation says to a man, 'I want your life,' he does not answer, 'How much will you give me for it?' No. Without a moment's hesitation his life is placed at his nation's service.
"Why can't it be the same with money? Isn't it a shocking thing, when the country is in grave peril, that its money-owning classes should say, 'Very well. But if we lend you money you must pay us interest for it'? Is money more valuable than life? A man doesn't LEND his life. He GIVES It. He, and those who love him and depend upon him, suffer an irreparable loss. Something unique and precious is taken by the nation which cannot possibly be returned. Yet this sacrifice is made without any haggling or bartering on the part of the giver.
"But these blethering patriots, these flag-flapping Shylocks, many of whom can be heard at recruiting meetings eloquently urging the worker to throw up everything - wife, child, mother and job - and face death for his country, will not even grant the country the loan of their surplus capital unless they are permitted to wax fat on the country's need."
