The next story-taller: “the Job Network is out-performing other countries and doing better than the system it replaced”.

Doing WHAT? Put government money in pockets of agency-owners by putting slaves into two month job-something at their mates places, sharing government perks with them to improve national-liberal Howard-lies-style employment statistics?

What bemuses me is the habit some people have of constantly referring to the failure of socialism while pointing to countries like Australia as a shining example of capitalist success.

It is as though they fail to see (or acknowledge) that the capitalist society they celebrate is supported by socialism. Is absolutely everything privately owned for profit? Hospitals, water supply, main roads, policing etc? Of course not, and I take extreme issue with anyone who says they should be. A visit to the U.S where many of these things have been flogged to the highest bidder brought it savagely home to me how vitally important it is for the most important things to remain socialised. The most disturbing sight was not so much the high level of poverty, but the high level of poverty amid great wealth.

And of course we all know what a superior system this is don't we? The robust health of the free-for-all American economy is proof of that eh?

Of course whenever there is a problem, some people are quick to claim that it is not too much unrestrained free market capitalism that is causing it but rather too little. If only absolutely everything were flogged off to the highest bidder and governments stopped regulating and got out of the way, everything would be so much better right? No, it wouldn't be.

Capitalistic societies must be supported by some measure of collective ownership and direction (also known as socialism) for the long term health of society.