Economics was invented to make Astrology look good.

Modern monetisem was a case of fixing what wasn't broken.

Post war Australia was a period where we went through a period of unprecedented prosperity founded almost exclusively on cooperative capitalism. And progressively wound back by conservative governments who, driven by an idiotic ideological imperative, needed to return to the master servant model.

So, there was a push to stupidly privative all public enterprise and amenity. Claiming without any merit whatsoever, that private enterprise always does it better. The ignored answers are indeed in economic history!

We went from a post war period as the third wealthiest nation on the planet and a debt free creditor one to boot, to one now mired in record and exponentially growing government and domestic debt.

Simply put, thinking inside circles limits the questions and if the questions are limited, so also are the answers. And by implication/inference the available choices!

Cooperative capitalism allows our money to remain here working exclusively in our economy where the usual economic flow on factors allows on dollar to do the work of seven! And way better than stupidly selling everything not nailed down for comparative pittances.

Forest Gump nailed it when he said, stupid is what stupid does!
Alan B.

Economics just like Climate change is simply a Taxpayer-funded club for people of no merit !

Times change but economic fundamentals never do! And doing what you've always done and expecting a different result is insanity.

Conservative economics not only wound back the economic model that gave us our greatest period of prosperity in our history but concentrated our wealth in fewer and fewer hands.

That economic insanity gave us the Great Depression.

I don't believe in left or right economics, just good or bad policy, up or down, in or out. A good idea is a good idea, no matter who thought of it.

I do believe in pragmatic bipartisanship. As was the case in the post war period referred to. Mr Menzies embraced it with enthusiasm!

Just the simplicity of cutting out paper shuffling profit demanding middlemen halves the cost of living/doing business. And factory direct now doable thanks to global trade, the internet and computers. Stop with the banal excuses already.

Nobody is owed a living or a free lunch!

Think, if Australia's natural resources were divided equally among those that own them, i.e., we the people. every man woman and child would be a millionaire.
Alan B.

According to the article we hear almost daily, that "Budgets must be brought into balance and expenditure constrained."

Seriously, has the author been living under a large rock in a very deep cave for the past 18 months?

In 2020-21 Australia’s budget deficit as a percentage of GDP was the largest since WW2. The budget papers provide 10 years of fiscal projections, and they forecast the budget to be in deficit each year for the next decade – and presumably deficits will persist beyond even that.

Government expenditure as a percentage of GDP reached an all-time high of 34.8% in 2020-21 and is forecast to remain well above its long-term average throughout the next few years.

It is arguable that this is an appropriate and reasonable response to the effects of the Covid pandemic. But it is complete nonsense to say that the dominant fiscal narrative at present is one of budget surpluses and expenditure restraint.

Rhian

Ideally, if inflation bumps along between eight and ten percent, Government debt is self repairing.

The job of Government is lazily too easy. Controls of inflation and interest rates are in their little manipulative fingers.

All the pain of the manipulative classes are felt by others further down the pecking order: and right at the bottom rung, the poor suffer the lions share of the pain, left to suffer the indignities of excessive immigration on affordable housing access and day to day cost of living pressures impacting on not only but also, whether they eat, all too often.

Politicians are paid way too much for the lazy bludging class they are IMO.