Mum and Dad, you should come over here, the salaries are high and land is cheap. We bought three hundred acres last month and it is paying off already, there are minerals on our valley and we have contracted the local mining robotics company to dig it out for us. We also got the loan to build the hydroponics farm on the western thirty acres. Chinese vegetables are the hot commodity at the moment, with all the Chinese immigration from "Terra-firma". We are hoping to cash in on that fad. Julie is going to manage the hydroponics while I keep working for Maristin Aluminium maintaining their SCADA systems. You gotto come over I tell you.

Exploration and Skilled Labor

Space Ship One recently claimed the X-Prize , after the three-man space ship reached 100kms above the earth's surface, the first manned sub-orbital ship to come from private industry. It was not that long ago that small wooden ships were exploring the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, seeking a prize - not 10 million dollars but either the richness of the gold or spice. Several of those explorers opened up Australia to Europe.

The early 1800's were a bonanza for skilled labour that was in Australia. Skilled labour was so rare that workers could name their price. Robert Hughes wrote;

Because it was far scarcer [than land in Australia], skilled free labour was much more valuable than land. It could name its own price. When the green and hopeful colonist brought his free servant to Australia with him, the servant often deserted: .... Cheap land and free grants meant that anyone with hard hands and a strong back could become his own boss.

The skilled workers didn't remain shy about their luck and bargaining position, letters were sent back to England describing the situation. Many of those with skills in demand became increasingly social mobile as they generated wealth from their land and labour.

The Black Death

The social structure of the Middle Ages was feudalism. The nobles maintained populations on their estates which doubled as the monarch's militia - as well as a labour force for the nobles. In return the monarch would grant these nobles the land for their serfs to work on. This structure was broken with the advent of the Bubonic Plague in the latter half of the 1300's. The disease was so devastating it destroyed half of Europe's population over a period of a century.

The loss to a consumer economy was recession in Europe, merchants and tradesmen did not have the same number of consumers to hawk their wares too. The hardest hit strata of the population by the disease was the rural peasants - who suffered a horrendous mortality rate. A consequence was that labour available to the nobles became very scarce.

As supply of labour was scarce and demand high, the wages for peasants and the existing middle class professionals rose. Even church laity were demanding higher wages. The "Black Death" led to increased social mobility, the widening of the aspirational middle classes and ultimately - destroyed the feudal structure.

Increasing Salaries and Wages

The situation in early Colonial Australia and a Middle Ages Europe involved labour scarcity. It was through this scarcity that social mobility increased and the middle class expanded. Even though it was not until the Victorian period when the middle class became active politically. It was their wealth and numbers which enabled them to become so.

So for political parties who are supposedly "looking out" for the middle class, how can they achieve that? I do not believe that middle class welfare, such as what the Liberal and Labor parties practised in the recent Australian election is a suitable policy. It increases dependence on the state, rather than reliance on the individual or family unit.

SpaceShipOne's recent flights give an example. The next place of labour scarcity will be when humanity splinters into the void. Those early explorers and settlers will have the opportunities that the free and skilled workers had in early colonial Australia. From this, it can be deduced that the best way for governments to increase an individuals income is through funding research and development for human space exploration, manned vehicles and extra-terrestrial colonisation technologies.

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More Reading on Mars

• Mars
• Labor Scarcity
• Robert Hughes
• Black Death
• Letter Home From A Martian Colonist
• Offshore Oilrig Windfarms