You right Edward Carson I was disrespectful but perhaps you should read this:

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8413038

The one thing about this country is that if you come from the gutter if you have the will and perseverance you can do anything.

We have the ability to go to school, to go to university, get opportunities and generally if you have a go we are one of the few places in the world where you can acheive anything.

Shonga's comments:

'we have a duty of care to lift these people up to an acceptable state of living, it's our moral obligation.'

Partly we do yes and we do that as a country already, with one of the best welfare systems in the world. I know this because my mother raised us on it.

But we can only do so much, we have welfare, medicare, free school, hecs, scholarships, schemes for the disadvantaged, charities and the like.

There is enough out there so that if you are not an idiot with your money you will have an acceptable state of living. If you choose to work hard or get educated or trained, you chances of earning more are increased. They are the facts.

If there where restrictions on markets and it was anything other than free and unlimited, we would see many of us who started at the gutter stay there.

I am sure people like shonga would have more to whinge about though, which would suit her fine.

Vivy
You sound like you’ve never run a business or otherwise been an employer in your life. In reality it is not as simple as that.
A pizza shop proprietor advertises for someone with a car to deliver his pizzas. The first applicant didn’t bother to shave or shower before coming, the second arrived an half hour late because he got lost. The third was similarly a half hour late but he didn’t get lost, he just had to finish his joint, man. The fourth applicant is on time, presentable and keen. Problem is he’s not that happy with the pay and/or working conditions and thinks he might do better driving a cab.
Finding an employee is just as stressful as finding a job. Have you ever wondered why some companies pay big bucks to employment agencies. Some agencies are known as ‘head hunters’ who endeavor to poach workers from one company to go to another by offering a better package.
Employers, bosses and shareholders have to eat too.

Shonga,
By the plethora of grammatical mistakes in your post (the plural of ego is egos) and the 2.40 pm timing one suspects you may have had a well lubricated lunch. Good for you. You either are a talented person who can demand a good salary with commensurate lunch breaks, or you work for the government or are on some type of government grant. Either way you should thank capitalism for your lifestyle. It either affords you a high well deserved wage or maintains the fatted calf of industry from which the govt. poaches its take so as to be able to pay its tribute to all its ideological supporters.

Capitalism doesn’t create poor people, it merely highlights the poor in comparison to the wealthy. The working poor in a capitalist country are always richer than in any other country, but unfortunately that is always (unjustly) overshadowed by the great income divide that comes in the original capitalist country.

In a free market there will never be a last fish. As the supply drops the price rises and guess what? Pot bellied, cigar chomping, silk hat wearing barons of industry will realise that there is $$$$ to me made in fish and they will be doing things, such as protecting the fish environment or creating fish farms whatever, to guarantee that today and in the future there will be plenty of fish to sell.

As an aside: I remember about twenty years ago I visited a trout farm up around Albury somewhere. I paid my $2.00 to get in and then I decided to buy a 50c. bag of stale bread/ grain to feed the young fishies as I walked around. What a brilliant capitalist the owner was! He had people coming along and PAYING to maintain his stock.

CEOs cannot be entrusted to be societies leaders. No one elects them. By showing the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in Friedman economics that arbitraging criminal behaviour exposes we can garner a fairer market driven economy. All that is required is to legislate for Public Listed Company CEO combined salaries and bonuses to be no more than twice what senior elected officials recieve. And for bonuses not tied to productivity to be OUTLAWED as should be the case.

It is fascinating, under Friedmanomics for example, that Skilling and Lay were charged only with insider trading over ENRON. The Tragedy for America was that their criminal arbitrage of California power and of many nation's assets around the World was NEVER questioned. This criminal arbitrage which amounts to STEALING, still persists today with the blessing of US government.

With that thought in mind:

CEOs are not very nice people are they daddy? Do they have a theme song?

Yes as a matter of fact, they do son. It goes a bit like the old Randy Newman Politics song:

No one likes us CEOs-just because we arbitrage you up the eye
We may not be perfect, heaven knows we try
We pay ourselves multi-million bonuses even with the kitty dry
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's pump and dump 'em and watch 'em drown

We STEAL all their evil money- but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful, covetous and they're hateful
They 9/11 us, they don't respect us-so let's surprise them
We'll pump and dump them more

We'll save Australia
But we're gonna rape that flying Kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
Privatise their highways, mining, water, media, john howard and surfin', too

And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be

They all hate us CEOs anyhow
So let's pump and dump their women
With taxpayer funded childcare its as easy as ABC
So let's get cracking unzip your flys
As a matter of fact I think we'll pump and dump 'em now!

Harry Throssell writes that "Opposing Friedman’s theories were major 20th century economists John Maynard Keynes in Britain..." Not so. JMK died in 1946. In 1946 Milton Friedman was only just receiving his PhD.