The only problem with Peter Costello's under-reported idea of making groups that organise boycotts against companies for moral or ethical reasons financially responsible is its limited scope.

While Costello's target is animal welfare groups who campaign against struggling designers like Gucci for using animal fur, he should have the courage to go much further.

People making what are, in the modern globalised world, totally outmoded ‘moral' arguments against the ‘excesses' of free enterprise should have to pay for the trouble they cause. It's about taking responsibility.

It's time charities gave something back to the community

Charities

Charities are some of the worst offenders at this moral thuggery. Their conscience-tugging campaigns have cruelly played on middle class guilt leading to mass contributions to the likes of ‘The Christian Children's Fund' and ‘The Salvation Army'. If these monies had been used to produce more as a society, who knows how many bridges could have been built, and how our economy could have ballooned. With more for all, not just the poverty-stricken few.

What they owe us: $220 billion

Unions

Their odious moral insistence that workers ‘need' safe workplaces and ‘fair' pay has caused many a business to go to the wall. This in turn has ramifications for our whole economy. Imagine how much more wealth there would be to go around if only workers were paid less.

What they owe us: $200 billion

Farmers

The near-constant squawking and whinging of these glorified gardeners has tugged many a government heartstring into action. If it's not the ‘drought' it's ‘dry land salinity', ‘cattle prices', ‘rabbit plagues' or some other fictitious hardship that's dreamed up to make us feel some ethical obligation to our inefficient and backward country cousins. Whether it be diesel rebates to the tune of a billion dollars a year, subsidised telephony, cheap postal, ten-billion-dollar Murray River plans or drought assistance money, you name, it we've done it. Funnily enough, these same government aid beggars tend to be the most hard-hearted about other forms of welfare. So the fact that we let their whining have an affect on us probably has them in stitches.

What they owe us: $240 billion

Churches

Their moral posturings have been costing society for over 2000 years. Isn't it time it stopped? Look at the Ten Commandments for starters. Sure it begins all right. I mean, not worshipping other Gods before Jehovah is just plain efficient. And fair enough, if we could cut out blasphemy, there'd be even more time savings. But spending eons honouring your mother and father is hardly helpful; next they'll be insisting on protecting weekend penalty pay or paid holidays so families can spend time together.

And what about stealing and murdering and committing adultery? Surely chasing up all these thoroughly natural impulses and insisting offenders are prosecuted and gaoled etc wastes more time than it's worth. And for what, so some people can feel better morally? Maybe instead of wistfully staring off into space and dreaming up ways we can all feel morally superior, these slackers could busy themselves with the slightly more pressing and important issue of turning a dollar

What they owe us: $310 billion

Stan Zemanek

Stan Zemanek is scum.

What he owes us: Stan Zemanek is scum

So there you have it. If Costello gets some intestinal fortitude, we as a society stand to make about $970 billion. How many hospitals and schools could that build?

But if our Treasurer fails our purpose and thinks this is going too far, isn't it time we added him to our list of ‘moral marauders'? Isn't it time we started doing the maths on what HIS ethics are costing this great nation?

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