The GAP between Rich and Poor is not due to "Neo Liberalism" it is due to .....

Original SIN!

Man is fallen, alienated from God, and as such he acts accordingly.

PROPHETIC Role.

The vast majority of Old Testament prophecies related to the issue of injustice. ie.. the Rich exploiting the poor.

SOLUTION.. according to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos and numerous others......it was not

-join the Greens,
-embrace Marx or
-follow Marcuse
-Join the Labor Party

Heck..it's not even follow Glenn Beck....

But it IS..

a) Repent. (of injustice)
b) Believe (In God)
c) Obey his precepts.

No one is ever dealt a “perfect hand”

Whilst many women pay for collagen injections for fuller lips, my beautiful wife once tried to get her naturally full lips “reduced”, feeling they were too full.

We all have limits and what we might perceive as “deficiencies” and imperfections.

To the article…

How does neo-liberalism deprive anyone of anything?

One politician said

“I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbour.”

Many people throughout the ages have had disabilities

They have traditionally been helped first by their families and then by their immediate community

But

I fail to see how organizing an economy to a level that

“succeed in reforming the discrimination of people with disabilities, the economic system must undergo serious practical changes which allow for an ethical and social focus on people with disabilities in society.”

Produces any overall benefits!

When we consider the USA and USSR, as examples of neo-liberalism versus socialism / collectivism and the sort of state I suspect Peter has a vision of in his “economic system”, having undergone “serious practical changes”, I would say

Many of the poorest in USA were better off than the average in USSR and were free to aspire to a better quality of life accordingly

In short

Limiting the rewards of the "whole and healthy", to equalize the opportunities of the "disabled"

does nothing for anyone,

it merely impoverishes life for all


Peter is expressing a selfish notion, devoid of any meritorious benefits.

It is as anti-democratic as it is anti-neo-liberalist.

See Barnett "The End Of Thatcherism". The election of the Tories in uk has spelled a newstart; Rudd's "Brutopia" gives an Oz example and Barack Onama in the US. In all there has been a retreat from neo liberalism and market triumphalism to Keynsian intervention. While it's true that the past intervention hasgone Robert Manne's hope it was all over - (The Australian, May) was wrong. I doubt we will see return in the near future - too many losers have been created. If we have the crash some predict (and there is still trillions of toxic debt to be found (Norris, CEO of CBA last year) then expect something quite different.

Oh Stern one.. *waves*

what you described about the merit or lack thereof of the article simply proves my long held dogma that "communities" act on the basis of what they feel will benefit THEM... rather than the whole of society.

This is true for racial, cultural and religious groups and is more than ample evidence if it were needed that "Multiculturalism" is only fit for the lunatic assylum.

Cheers mate.

Yes, as appropriated and adapted by the establishment, neolib is a truly ugly and naked ideology and the only trouble I have, is in people not being able to, or perversly refusing to, see it for what it is.
That is, an alibi for the ransacking of the common wealth for the miserly few, bypassing Keynesianism and social democracy, or for that matter liberal democracy even, as opposed to Ricardian/Malthusian classical liberalism.
God help the people of this country if they are ever stupid enough to turn this country over our version of David Cameron; the daft Inquisition Abbott.

May be ya-all its time to humble ourselves and bow our heads and cry out not my will but thy will be done. Let your kingdom come. When the load is too heavy come to Jesus for he is the way, the truth, and the true light in an ever darkening situation, for the truth you know will set you free. 2+2 is 4. Perfect love casts out all fear, greater love has no one than this, than to lay down ones's life for his friends.For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Australia is at a cross road. Truth and justice or the same ole same ole. Both parties have taken a stance right of centre to get elected. More better we pray for our leaders that truth and justice flow through them then their own selfish desires. Blessed is a nation whose God is the Lord. Cursed is the nation where selfish ambition is on the throne.