Or we could have direct democracy.

And accept human societies as inevitably imperfect and bury utopian idealism once and for all.

If you're advocating a return to cooperative capitalism? Then we can agree!

And it serves those communities where it reigns supreme as the cultural glue that binds like minded inclusive societies. And functions to use/circulate limited local resources as much as 7 or more times before exhausting.

And despised by conservative ideologues, because their preferred divide and rule paradigm, is usually blown out of the water by regional, united we stand, divided we fall, pragmatism!?

Co-ops stood almost alone as the only, free market, private enterprise model, that largely survived the Great depression, mostly intact!

Even as other private enterprise models went increasingly to the wall. Given the economic lead in the saddlebags of debt and dividend servicing.

Mutual societies have morphed into credit unions, building co-ops and the like, and consequently are a more inclusive, pragmatic model?

Co-ops don't usually magically appear, but are created by mutual need or wise pragmatic government acting to facilitate and finance these entities into being!

And where that happens, often ends a local dependency on foreign investment, manifesting as foreign control and a parasitical hollowing out of the local economy.

What do we gain if say, a debt laden foreign miner sets up shop here to mine and sell our coal/gas, even as we are price gouged for what we buy, from tax avoiding, profit repatriating, foreign speculators!?

And the sole reason why the formerly spectacularly successful Celtic tiger, eventually went belly up! After letting debt laden foreign speculators, run rampant through the local real estate market! Then trying to bail them out with local taxpayer funds! When the over inflated, housing bubble burst!

The one lesson of history that stands universally, Is that nobody learns the lessons of history!

Thus we had spectacularly successful Keynesian economics and the unprecedented period of prosperity it ushered in, replaced by thoroughly disgraced, trickle down theory, coupled to equally destructive, extreme capitalism!

Government can't solve anything if they stand in the way of the best solutions or worse, work to actively prevent or dismantle them!
Alan B.

Yuyutsu...

You are smugly cocooned behind demoralising multiculturalism.
Beware, the next cultural shift in this country, may not include you in!
You may be treated with the same contempt as whites! God forbid.

Multiculturalism is a form of psychosis afflicting the host country which can be bought and sold: bought by developers and sold by tractors to the host culture, namely (and lamely), politicians.

The only realistic way out is a postal vote on Global Warming , community agreement on either tripling coal production or concreting over coal mines , and buying wind turbines for each power pole or recycling them all to rebuild Liddell .

Every western style economy, rest solely on two economic pillars, energy and capital!

And we have not only privatized both, with quite disastrous consequences, but are growing record debt burdens as we try to borrow our way to prosperity?

Even as much of the economically essential discretionary spending is eaten up by skyrocketing energy bills. And those same energy bills are responsible for numerous industries exiting Australia!

We try to repair some of this damage by selling our best mining prospects to debt laden, tax avoiding, profit repatriating foreigners! As blame shifters, full of weasel words, tell us, we've always had foreign investment!

And sad commentary on so called leaders/economic illiterates, who essentially took the third wealthiest nation on the planet and a creditor one at that! And guided by Ideological imperatives alone, sold it and our economic sovereignty down the river, all while smiling like cheshire cats that licked all the cream!

And continue with, sell it for a song stuff that clearly has not only hasn't worked, but central to the problem!

There is a way out and forward! And staring us in the face!

However, when you are in a really deep hole, digging harder and faster, is likely to be entirely counter productive! Ditto blind man's bluff! i.e., The visually impaired leading the visually impaired!

Energy, Capital. Chop, chop! Economic pillars at bargain basement prices and would you like fries with that?
Alan B.

Dear Dan,

Have you any positives to offer?

Yes, it is quite possible for people to follow you due to fears (including legitimate ones), but is this what you want to base your society on?

Show that your culture is great and wonderful, show that it is moral - and millions will follow you out of admiration and love!