Who gets to deem what your worth Edward? Coz I reckon I am worth heaps, and so does me mum!

Edward Carson:

"the free market, the opposite of socialism, does not work because there ends up a great disparity in the earning levels of workers is merely a tautology. Of course there will be, this is the nature of the FREE market: you receive only what you are deemed to be worth. This inequality of earnings is irrelevant when what we desire is a system that creates the highest GDP for the country"

This is the absolute heart of the matter. My questions here are:

What of the accelerated nature of this income divide? If it were a static phenomenon then perhaps it would be an acceptable outcome for society, but surely if it continues to accelerate then you will have a tiny number of people controlling the vast majority of world wealth. In this situation, would it not be logical to assume they will use their wealth and power to maintain this status quo, thus warping the 'free market' intent of the free market economy? You say the free market economy is designed to reward the deserving, but is this still the case when the powerful few act to maintain this status quo?

When you say highest GDP for the country, what do you define as "for the country"
What of profit derived by multinational corporations? what of companies that outsource their labor to cheaper economies?
In the ultimate ideal of the free-market system there is no wage regulation so is acceptable to farm out labor to the cheapest provider. Throughout recent decades, this has been almost entirely unskilled labor, but as China and India mobilise their workforce for better education, I can only assume that more skilled work - such as IT - will also be contracted to other nations, aided by vastly improved telecommunications.

When you say "for humanity’s sake, leave the economy alone" I can only feel that it is for humanity's sake that you must have some form of intercession to prevent any particular economic ideology from running rampant and to restore some semblance of a balance between competition policy and social justice.

Unrestricted trading allows people to charge whatever price the market will bear. This can lead to price gouging or if you read Crikey the CEO of Qantas earning amazing bonuses while the catering crew, cleaners etc struggle to earn a living wage.

At the moment young people looking for work in Brisbane are facing the annual range of predatory behaviours by employers who expect young casuals to work for no pay, while they are being trained or attending meetings - under Workchoices employees are still entitled to be paid for training and attending meetings.

You can argue that the Iron Lady did wonders for the UK. Before she got into power there were no homeless people in England, there were jobs and there was cradle to grave health care, there was dental care. Now how much of that still exists in the UK?

The World Bank and IMF need to be held accountable for the destruction of social structures in the old Soviet Union. Who insisted that the state assets be sold off at fire sale prices? The World Bank and IMF need to be reviewed to ensure that their policies improve the conditions of the beneficiary countries not just the American sub contractors.

Just because Rupert Murdoch tells me via his newspapers that extreme wealth is good for everyone - I beg to disagree, extreme capitalism might help his family but it doesn't help me.

As Australia dries out if we permit the market to dictate which land remains in agriculture and which land is taken out of agriculture, we face the danger that the land that is taken out of agriculture becomes a barren waste or desert. Its going to take money to rehabilitate that land to something environmentally sustainable. The gubment is going to have to stump up the dosh.

TurnRightThemLeft “Communism was the solution, and it wasn't the right one, but that doesn't mean the realisation was wrong - on the contrary, embracing global forms of capitalism has taught us that it was spot on the mark.”

Ask an East German, a Pole, a Hungarian or Lithuanian how “spot on the mark” communism was.

I find there is nothing like researching with someone who actually lived under it to find out if it really worked.

SHONGA “a system that provides each child with a good education,”

that is actually common sense. The better educated someone is, the greater their potential for productive contribution to the general community and ability to pay taxes etc. A good education system is an investment in everyones future, provided the teachers are teaching kids how to think for themselves, rather than towing the labour party line (as pursued by Joan Kirner and a quite few teaching union luminaries).

Billie “Before she (dearest Maggie) got into power there were no homeless people in England,” yes there were and a lot of unemployed too, plus the “hidden unemployed” who had “jobs” in nationalized industry, courtesy of the tax payers.

I could regale you with tales of horror under the nationalized health system, a system which was a pot of doggie doos.

As for “The gubment is going to have to stump up the dosh”
this is what you do not understand billie.
The “gubment” merely directs ever increasing amounts of your and my reward for effort (income) into pet causes, regardless of reason and without asking you or I first. It is your money they will be pi**ing up against the wall, remember that.

We are all worth the same. That is the amount which someone else is prepared to pay us. Now all you have to do is work out what to do to convince those who are prepared to pay you the most

To market,
to market,
to buy a fat pig,,,,

Over the last 20 years Australian governments have systematically sold off the fatted pigs. Telstra, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank, Suncorp-Metway, the Australian Wheat Board (now the infamous AWB Inc), various Government Insurance offices, airports, motorways etc etc.

The state and federal trasurers then gloat about their budget surpluses. Well I could sell my house, rent it back for $1000/week and my budget would be in surplus. For a while....

Having run out of government enterprises to sell, governments are now turning to Public Private Partnerships. All the while, the merchant bankers and lawyers have been growing rich on the fees and commissions. Governments then spend some of the proceeds on flim-flam like the 2000 Olympics - often feebly justified by the "tourist dollars" these events will create.

Meanwhile, my taxes have been going up, rather than down as governments trumpet their "efficiencies". Well they've certainly become efficient at spending my tax dollars, that's for sure.

-->"TurnRightThemLeft “Communism was the solution, and it wasn't the right one, but that doesn't mean the realisation was wrong - on the contrary, embracing global forms of capitalism has taught us that it was spot on the mark.”

Ask an East German, a Pole, a Hungarian or Lithuanian how “spot on the mark” communism was.

I find there is nothing like researching with someone who actually lived under it to find out if it really worked."<--

Once again, Col Rouge has turned up selectively misquoted somebody and then has proceeded to defeat this straw man he has built up.

What "TurnRightThemLeft“ was trying to point out that, while communism was not the answer, the problem it was attempting to address was. Which was the inherent failures of a completely free-market system (We can see this because it has failed completely wherever it was actually implemented). East Germans,Poles etc have nothing to do with the actual point.

This a typical feature of Communists and Libertarians who can't defend their ideas honestly. The reason for this is because their ideas don't work and are indefensible.