Fred refers in his post to more interventionist policies on "training, education, active labour market programs, work-to-welfare incentives and early childhood intervention policies." Elsewhere, he has argued for more spending on economic and social infrastructure. While he generally makes a good case, the main flaw is that most implementation would need to be by state governments, and the standard of those governments is generally appalling. I won't quote chapter and verse here, I've made comments in other threads, but the main reason I favour small government is that I know from sad experience advising government leaders et al just how bad the quality of policy development and decision-making is, and how rarely do decisions lead to effective and efficient use of resources for the broad community interest. I met some good federal ministers in the Hawke years, but at state level the great majority lack the capacity, understanding and ethics to identify and pursue sensibly the policies which would be required for a Fred-ised society. Perhaps governance standards are higher in the Nordic countries.

Transferring jobs overseas should be prepared to share their super-profit inside country of residence - or follow their enterprises to the third world countries.

That is the end of story.

Alfred, Agreed with your post, statistics excepted, Freddy’s statistics are "arguable".

Re “The (very visible) dead hand very clearly gains the upper position.”
- Doubtless as it casts a dark shadow over the “Wasteland”?

RobbyH imho, your analysis is correct, excepting the variables of budgeting by government are volatile and exact flow matching difficult. However, the surpluses of the past 10 years have been used to redeem the debt incurred through Hawke/Keating’s mismanagement. Now that has been almost paid down, closer attention should be made to making peoples superfund contributions tax free, encouraging saving instead of consumption.

Kenny - have you ever shopped in a WalMart? They (Walmart) get what they pay for and the ones who work there are not forced to be there.

Someone on another thread mentioned GM in Flint, Michigan in a similar context. Well US Car Industry, GM/Ford/Chrysler have been acting like dinosaurs for years. Currently, their shares are traded as “junk bonds”. Some sectors of US industry are overdue for “rationalisation” (= trying to stop the financial haemorrhaging ), which Ford have just announced. In those cirumstances of reducing employment opportunity, the lucky ones, in the short term, might be seen as those who keep their jobs.

I do recall Microsoft has produced a significant number of millionaire employees, those who held onto their employee share issues. I doubt they have need or would be in favour of Freddy’s experiment in government directed wealth re-distribution and social re-engineering.

MichaelK the problem with such a policy is, such embargoes would see the enterprise go off-shore, third world or not. Then we would no longer have the income from those “super-profits” being levied any taxes in Australia or distributed as dividend back to Australian individuals and Australian super-funds.

Rather than “End of Story”, that would be the “End of Business” in Australia and an economic disaster.

I don't think we've found the right mix at all.

I've been to the outer Western suburbs of Melbourne, Wirribee, Hoppers Crossing, Altona areas etc. Full of migrants, full of working class people and a large amount of housing commission homes - those who have been lost in the sytem of Centrelink, many single mothers and so on.

Apparently the Salvos in these areas are struggling to keep up with the demand for food and clothing. It's heart wrenching to hear the stories. Not all lost causes, just people who have lost hours of work or cannot find an occupation and who are laughed at by certain hypocrites who live in wealthy homes among the poor in these areas - all the while throwing rotten fruit at them.

Many people are being forced to travel across to the other side of Melbourne by train only to get meagre wages, casual rates with no penalties. Families are breaking down and all the while you find low life scum bags putting them down. What a high order of mongrels they belong to.

Oh there are wealthy homes here, with people earning good money but there is a the vastly hidden poor who will be kept poor by the greedy.

No, sorry. I don't think Australia has "the right mix".

Tubley,

People were not LOST in a net of Centrelink - they ARE KEPT in the net of poverty and cheap slave-job-conditions spreading with IR newly-established on a broader number of the ousted from works moved overseas. Col Rouge is right that it is not the end of a story on merites of a historical run.

I mentioned the plight of the workers at the GM plant in Flint Michigan because they currently are paid low wages and they are being offered lower wages. There is still a high demand for vehicles in the USA but Ford and GM don't build what consumers want. We should consider massive executive salaries to the heads of "dinosaur" corporations to be obscene.

I think globalisation is wrong, it doesn't promote efficient or sustainable economic outcomes for society.

If corporations were taxed on their Australian turnover, there would be less incentive to import goods that can be produced in Australia. let me explain:

In 1972 I worked on the Joseph Lucas starter motor line and we worked on old machinery that had been sent out from the Coventry factory in the 1920s, after 50 years the machinery was tired, and lets face it I am not a skilled manual worker. 75% of motors were rejected at quality control. Why did the company allow this to continue, they imported sealed beam head light units from Canada, via Hong Kong, at a vastly inflated price, and the losses from their Australian operation offset the parent company's profit. eventually the factory was sold and Southland Shopping Centre occupies the site.

Currently Woolworths and Coles are importing food from China, Thailand and New Zealand, whats going to happen when the australian farmers are forced out of business?
We know transport prices are going to increase and the asia is becoming more affluent so Australians will have to compete against Asians for food grown in Asia.

I have noticed that the train services are looking for part time train station staff. 30 years ago, neither the railways or trams thought it was fair to offer workers split shifts and I think its unfair to make workers cross town for 1 hour of work. In fact unions fought to stop split shifts.