Barely a day passes without some news about the failings of players in the current economic system. While plenty has been written about the shortcomings of the political class in Australia, and not without good reason, there are many assumptions about the workings and outcomes of consumer capitalism that pass by without serious challenge.

I am not an economist and don't pretend to understand anything more than a surface gloss of how economies work. Yes, I have read bits of Marx and Adam Smith, newspaper columns by economists, The Economist magazine, as well as podcasts on the subject, but still, little remains in the mind after a day or two. Economics is a dry subject and it uses a specialist language which pays well if you are in the game, less so if you are merely an interested lay person.

What is becoming much clearer in Australia is that people are working longer hours, often without overtime pay. It is also clear that full-time jobs are decreasing in number just as part-time jobs are increasing. The latter often have poorer pay and working conditions attached to them. The decline of unionism, applauded on the Right as a victory for common sense and a sound economy, has led to all manner of abuses in the workplace. Having a wife who works in the hospitality industry has opened my eyes to the most flagrant exploitative practices. The worker has effectively no rights, especially if they do not have strong English and an understanding of mandated workplace conditions. There is no consideration of an employees well-being - they are effectively whiteboard economic units to be used to maximise a profit.

I will take the matter further when Ann leaves her job next year. But this should not be happening anyway. The neo-liberalism of the past 30 years may have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, but it has landed millions more in low-paid, uncertain jobs in which their voices are lost in the rush to a better bottom line.

A spectre is haunting the developed world. The spectre is not communism but it is one that promises some kind of reckoning.