Saltpetre,

Thanks for that.

Also, there is much food for thought in your comments.

We all need to lift our game, including academics, but i do believe Aust (and other western societies) are at crossroads. Yes, balancing eco, social and env issues is the ultimate test of a sophisticated society, but demands of int economy now putting this goal under threat.

I suggested a mix bag for Aust by 2030, but this does not mean that we cannot adopt a more appropriate policy mix to meet old and new demands.

Dear Saltpetre,

You are perfectly entitled to disagree with me but you are not entitled to be right. If you don’t understand economics that’s fine, but you cannot legitimately deny a university subject which teaches the precise opposite to your perspective.

What I said was that economics is and always will be a set of discrete processes. To insert socialization topics into these processes rather than have them drive the desired social outcomes is exactly what I stated as the “socialization” of a domain.

You say that you “believe these diverse interests are indivisibly and inseparably connected - and I accordingly view 'pure' economics as mere mathematical construct”

Sorry but this is utter rubbish, factually incorrect and a figment of your dreamtime.

The ABC discussion that Chris referred to and Chris's expansion are all
well away from the coming reality.
Too much discussion around politics, the media and places like this are
very much taken with the business as usual syndrome.
International business will not be the problem for Australian business,
as the vast majority of business will be local.
With much more expensive energy, there will be a major reshuffle of our workplaces.
An increasing number will be "returning" to the land as farmers.
There seems to be no way we can afford to build by 2050 the totally
non fossil fueled transport, food system and industry that will enable
us to continue as we are now.
Certainly by 2030 a transition will be under way that just cannot be
repelled or bypassed.
We might alleviate it to some extent by a very large campaign of
building nuclear power stations, but aside from the mindset that now
exists we just cannot afford it.

The whole discussion seems redundant to me.