Hi Al’

Waving back….

Peter’s article relies on classifying people and modifying their individual rights to equalize the reward they receive from their individual efforts and achievements

Similarly “multiculturalism” suites those who seek differential entitlement, like the recent headline from USA, where non-Anglo voters were supposedly allowed 6 votes to Anglo’s one vote…. I will follow that one in detail as it unfolds.

As one politician wrote

"When all the objectives of government include the achievement of equality - other than equality before the law - that government poses a threat to liberty."

Peter’s notion… “the economic system must undergo serious practical changes” -

Would, I assume need the support of law and no politician or statesman would expect to get elected on such a platform (“democracy” recognizes the able bodied as well as the disabled and there are more able bodied with a vote)

(alternatively he would be fomenting some form of revolution… and for many practical reasons, I cannot see that succeeding even if it happened – I am going to stop there because to continue, I would end up in the middle of one huge sick joke)

The challenge for us all, is to deal with the challenges of our life and grow as a person, accordingly

It is when people seek to burden others with their challenges that several things happen

1 they become a boring “victim” of circumstance
2 they become unjustifiably critical of the abilities and achievements of others
3 they seek undue influence and manipulation of the laws to unfairly limit the potential of others

Actually the ones I feel sorry for are those who have wealthy successful parents and healthy bodies, who then blow their apparent advantage in an orgy of self-indulgent indolence, failing in life completely and likely losing their inheritance to die a pauper and in the gutter.

We see it all the time… around every third generation… and has always happened and I guess always will

Such is the price of freedom,

The alternative, where we are all shackled to a manipulated “economic system”, will not stop it.

Sterny....amen and "indeed" :)

Thanks for highlighting the fact people with disabilities are going backwards in this era of late capitalism.

The current Federal election is a classic! There’s not much on offer except more strategies to push people off the Disability Support Pension and make it harder to get. The only Australians being more ignored this election are Aboriginal Australians, who are almost invisible in the major party campaigns.

But the problem is more than just neoliberalism. “Classical economic liberalism” is the term used to describe the profit system in its youthful heyday. Translated, this means that industrial robber barons and bankers did what they damn well pleased, without regulation. As you say, this model was reborn in the 1960s and implemented globally in the 1980s as neoliberalism.

The essence of neoliberalism is removing all limits on what big business can do to maximize profits. In order to get loans from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank countries are forced to slash government services, open their markets to foreign capital, and sell off state-owned enterprises in energy, transportation and water to private companies.

“Let the market decide” serves as the justification for vanished social services, stagnant wages, and anti-union campaigns by the bosses.

However, while neoliberalism is a curse, the whole capitalist economic system needs an overhaul. Free-traders were betting that neoliberalism would give capitalism a second wind, and for a while, it did. But over the past few years it has been stirring up more resistance than revenue: that’s the good news! If you’d like to be part of the resistance, the Freedom Socialist Party (www.socialism.com) would love to work with you. Our Melbourne HQ is at Solidarity Salon, 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick.

Ah the “Freedom Socialist Party”

How clever, it is not often we have someone who can work an oxymoron into their logon…

I have driven past your Brunswick HQ … often and noticed the sign “hairy lesbians against everything” painted outside

Perhaps I should give you my wife’s business card, she is, among other things, a beautician and could fix that superfluous body hair up in an instant. Electrolysis on the face and wax for a smooth “Brazilian” finish!

You suggest being “part of the resistance”… do I need to be constipated or something to join…

Not so much an underground movement, more a bowel movement

So let us consider the plight of the disabled… I can think of a couple

Stacey Keach and Joachim Phoenix

Both born with cleft pallets / hair lips

So, what happened to them?

Well someone did their best to relieve them of the disability and despite the physical heirloom of the operation, these guys turned into renowned actors.

What does that tell you…

Well, they both lived in USA, home-ground of capitalism… and could have their disability partially repaired

But what would have happened to them if they lived in the “workers utopia of USSR”?

That conveniently forgotten 70 year experiment in “socialist freedom”?

They would likely have been ostracized and vilified for their disability

No “cosmetic operations” allowed, by law, in the workers glorious, atheist (by law) republic.

So don’t come here and pretend that the disabled are ever treated better by a socialist government…

What happens

the “disabled” are treated the same as the “able”

And that means the “disabled” are treated worse than under capitalism and for the “able”, a lot worse than under capitalism.

Denying people their just reward for individual innovation and risk merely reduces the incentive to achieve.

the result being worse outcomes for everyone

But do come back with a reply, I so love shredding the patently defective philosophy of collectivists (by any name)

Just remember, as one capitalist said

"When you hold back the successful, you penalize those who need help."

*We all know hard working, conscientious men and women who toil away for years but never get anywhere. But multi billionares like bill gates or warren buffet are somehow (it eludes me) seen as being so much better than the rest of us that they deserve 50% or so of the worlds wealth.*

The problem Mikk, is not them, but you and your envy.

If people like Gates and others have the talent to be creative and
innovative, to create products that hundreds of millions clearly
want to buy as they vote with their wallets, why should I object?

Would I be better off it these people had never created these
products, if we did not have our PCs, the internet and the rest?
Clearly not and I see no reason why I should feel better, if
they were poor.

We need innovation, we need calculated risk taking to achieve it
we need smart people with those skills, as voted by people with
their wallets, to do more of it.

What do you mean, people don't get anywhere? People make a living,
that's what it is all about. Happiness and somewhere don't have
to be about money, they can be about anything. The scientist might
get somewhere by fullfilling his/her curiosity with some major
discovery. The chef might be passionate about creating a new
dish. They are all achievements, yet you seem to limit your
evaluation of achievement by money alone. How wrong you are.

The main thing is that people have choices to do what they are
passionate about and if possible get paid for it. The freedom
to have a society where people have those opportunities is
what it is about these days and I'm blowed if I can see why that
is such a bad thing.

Life is never going to be fair for all. If you were born dead
ugly and your mate was born great looking, that is just how
the dna crumbled. Rather then shed tears of envy about it, make
the most of the talents that you have.

>>The richest 1% of adults in the world own 40% of the planet's wealth, according to the largest study yet of wealth distribution. The global study - from the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations - is the first to chart wealth distribution in every country as opposed to just income,<<

Mhaze you gotta look at the macro, not the micro.