I am a middle-aged white man and you should listen to me.

I am a middle-aged white man and you should listen to me.

 I am a middle-aged white man with money, so you should listen to me when I tell the government what to do with your taxes. I make a lot of money and don’t pay much tax, so I know about these things. I know the key to economic recovery is getting taxpayers working again, especially the ones in my company. I am watching the webcams in my offices in New Zealand from my apartment in Sydney and I don’t see anyone working. You should listen to me when I say we need to end the lockdown so they can get back to making me money.

 I am a middle-aged white man who’s big on Linkedin. You should listen to me because when I say things to my friends on Linkedin they all agree with me. Some of them click Like on my posts and some spell out exactly how much they agree with me in a comment. They liked what I had to say about plastic moulding and pivoting and provisional tax and they like what I have to say about Covid 19 just as much. You should listen to me too. You will probably like what I say and agree with it.

 I am a middle-aged white man who works at a university. You should listen to me just as much as you listen to those other university people who work in the medicine and biology parts. Some of them are not even middle-aged men. My academic freedom of speech means my opinion cannot be silenced even if my expertise has nothing to do with viruses, epidemics or public health. I have as much right to be listened to as them and I deserve to be remembered when my name comes up in a funding application too. So you should listen to me.

 I am a middle-aged white man who started a company once. You should listen to me because not everyone can start a company unless they are an entrepreneur. I am an entrepreneur like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos. We are middle aged white entrepreneurs and you should listen to us. We invent things all the time so when we say we’ve invented a way out of this pandemic you should listen to us. But mainly me. Listen to me.

 I am a middle-aged white man and I am fit and healthy so you should listen to me. My house is warm and dry and my food choices are not driven by affordability because I have plenty of money. My house is close to supermarkets, specialty food stores and many restaurants so you should listen to what I have to say about what other people eat. If I ever feel sick I head straight to my doctor and we talk about that time we played golf in Fiji then I pay with my Airpoints credit card. There is almost no chance Covid-19 will kill me if I catch it so you should listen to me about health policy.

 I am a middle-aged white man and my opinions are relevant. Listening to them is essential. Writing them down for you is an essential service. You should listen to me. You should listen to me. You should listen to me.