Having said what i just did, I could be wrong and we could just disintegrate into a 'dog eat dog' society where the minority is ignored and house prices remain boosted by rich immigrants while new Australian families suffer.

I just hope that Australians say enough is enough, and demand new ideas that at least rectifies the balance again. I am confident they will. If i did not believe in the power of democracy, then i might as well believe in nothing

Chris Lewis - actually Singapore is a good example of free trade, as is the use of cheap labor. You have some sort of moral reaction to the use of cheap labor, and are assuming that's a bad result of a free market..

It is not. Rather than judging these things by Australian standards, instead ask youself what laborers did before.. are they better off because the job existed? If the wages were higher, would the job still exist (probably not)? Would they thank you if you told them they had to give up their jobs because you insist their employers have to pay more?

Both Japan and Korea started off with cheap labor but as they developed the labor became more expensive, and the basic industrial jobs went elsewhere - that was one of the beauties of the free markets which you so deride.. manufacturing jobs go to the countries with cheap wages (generally) which then develop and stop being cheap wage destinations.

My recollection of your article is that you were saying international markets were not fully free (as I said, its difficult to work out what you were saying). Anyway, that's right, they are not.. but the general direction has been towards the reduction of external and hidden trade barriers.. a lot of work remains to be done but you have to think back to Aus of the 1970s and 1980s with its absurdly high trade barriers to remember what it was like.. Australia has done far more than most, admittedly, but it was bad to begin with..

What am is saying? I am saying that Western leaders never really had the answers. Policies which you assume are righteous, are more the result of ad hoc responses to problems. Come on, Labor cannot even run the HIP program. The Liberal Govt sold Australia's gold at a low.
They do their best, but policy responses are mostly all over the place, in line with how society functions.

Hence, as the problems mount, you will see the same ad hoc approach the other way.

I do not know what world you are living in, but it is already happening. Even Craig Emerson notes that protection is rising, but of course they are all wrong and you are right.

Read the mounting evidence that life expectancy in different regions of London is worsening quickly.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jun/08/life-expectancy-north-south-divide-widens

If you think that the masses are going to accept their increasing squalor while corporate bosses still get near record pay levels, dream on.

Do you think that people will accept the rise of China and cheaper goods forever, while our own productive capacity declines.

Do you think Australians want to rely simply on mining? Do you think record home prices are a good thing by relying on markets alone.

Do you think we should just take the money of corrupt communist party members?

Future policy outcomes will not be decided by arguments about free trade theory, whether it works or not, but by political parties responding to political opportunities, often from real concerns

I found this article poorly argued

It begins with a classic straw man:

“Does anyone really believe that the world will be okay if ...?”

Of course no-one believes that. I don’t believe the “world will be ok” if we stop being rude to each other or give more to charity, either, but that doesn’t mean they are not worthwhile objectives.

Then:

“there has never been a period where all nations adhered to free trade”

So what? Canadians’ “protection” of its milk and poultry industries is testimony to the well-attested power of vested interests to secure rents from compliant governments, not a counter-argument against free trade.

Then, we start to stray from the argument.

Free trade does not require that we abolish R&D subsidies, go into debt (private or public) or maintain fixed of floating exchange rates.

It does not require us to abolish social security or introduce compulsory savings and investment schemes. This is frankly silly scaremongering.

There is nothing in this article even presenting an argument as to why free trade might reduce welfare.

Incidentally, the Guardian article does not show life expectancy worsening, it shows life expectancy improving more slowly in some areas than others, leading to rising disparities. Not the same thing.

Chris Lewis - go back and look at the UK article you cite. It doesn't say what you think it says - it says that people are generally living longer but there are variations depending on people's income. There is nothing new in that, or even surprising - its always been the case - but you seem to think there has been some sort of change and that the difference is big enough for people to notice.

Nor is thre any reason to think that voters in general would take drastic action over conditions as they are now. Markets boom and bust, its what they do. Most people understand we are in a bust part of the cycle, and that conditions will improve..

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12758#220368

DavidL, Singapore's eCONomic growth went from 30% to -9% in the 12 months from the late 2008 GFC.

we are heading towards the same armageddon.

http://www.afr.com/p/business/companies/china_puts_the_squeeze_on_iron_ore_xDicc4yVyUSAQbuJ6dTX7I

http://www.afr.com/p/world/analysis_china_growth_may_not_be_ZZRTiLbAss959bXEPhQ2ON

Those 2 fools http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Swan & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Fraser_(Queensland_politician) along with Captain Bligh & Juliar Dillhard keep ranting about billions of mining investments in the pipeline.

But http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BHP_Billiton , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Tinto_Group & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xstrata are all multinational mega corporations.

if they have a choice between opening their next coal mine in Mongolia or Africa with no carbon tax, super profits tax, lower wages, etc & opening it in Queensland where they will have to pay an army of "inner city urban professionals" to write an EIS, environmental impact statement the size of a phone book?

Where do you think their next mine will be built?

If what has already been mentioned in the article is not enough for you DavidL?

Have a look at what Chinese "free trade" is doing for Angola?

http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/601361/n/Angola-s-Labour-Pains no labouring jobs for Angolans, they even had a Chinese interpreter onsite so that a European Engineer's instructions could be passed on to the Chinese labourers.

Oh & dont forget the farms bought up by Chinese farmers so they can supply the labourers with Bok Choi. There were a few jobs for locals harvesting the Chinese food.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12758#220371

diver dan, correct, watch http://www.devine.com.au/ estates over the next few years, "no deposits, no legals, no worries" young dink couples buy these houses on a 100% mortgage, but as our eCONomy comes unstuck & they with it, you will be able to buy their reposessed homes as little as half price.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12758#220378

Tristan Ewans, put the bong down, globalisation was invented by you & your kind for the glorious counter revolution, watch, read & learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc5E6pvDv2Y&feature=channel_video_title Lima declaration, thank you comrade Whitlam.

http://www.mailstar.net/xTrots.html thank you again comrades Whitlam, Hawke, Keating, Krudd, Dillhard & Trot's from the SWP.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12758#220381

Curmudgeon, sort of agree with some of what you said, the best thing that could happen now would be for ALL governments to default on their debts so that the 6redsigns family & other international banksters go broke.