“Since the election of the Albanese government in 2022, the pace of state expansion has accelerated dramatically. The result has been a deeply interventionist regime that picks winners, bankrolls favoured industries and blurs the line between public interest and private profit, as long as both answer to Canberra”. (Burshtein & Swan, ‘Don't cry for me Australia’, 2/8/35).

The invisible hand of the free market is being replaced by the Albanese government, big business, and the unions. What was the free market, that has made us rich until now, will be “massaged” and eventually captured, by state monopoly capitalism as per Marxist theory: what the Treasurer tries to kid us is “values-based capitalism”. What values? Whose values?

The authors describe government blather, incompetence and lies as a centralised economy, “not open to competition”, planned and plotted “behind closed doors”.

We all know how well centralised economies, in countries with governments who actually admit to being Communist/Socialist, have gone. And we look like going the same way under a government that appears to be imitating those sorts of regimes. And, the latest election seems to indicate that they will get away with it. The virtual one-party system is with us.

Governments before this vile lot have been gradually bringing Australia down - and getting away with it - thanks to low-information, ovine voters who are suckers for bribes and being ‘kept safe’. So, there is no excuse for being where we are now.

When the money finally runs out, those people who would rather Big Brother did their thinking for them will wonder what hit them.

While commentators say that Australia's race to the bottom will see us looking like Argentina, Argentina has at least a new government attempting to raise their country up: ours is doing the opposite. I envisage the day when the sneers will be redirected to Australia. Thanks to the “performative incompetence” of Jim Chalmers, Albanese and the rest of the Labor drones.

ttbn,

Australia hasn’t become some Marxist command economy just because Labor is investing in clean energy and local manufacturing. The private sector still dominates every major industry, competition is alive and well, and we’ve got one of the most deregulated markets in the OECD.

Coalition governments also “picked winners” and “bankrolled industries” - remember fossil fuel subsidies and corporate handouts? If that’s “state monopoly capitalism,” then the Coalition were Marxists too.

Argentina’s collapse wasn’t caused by the kind of modest interventions you’re railing against, it came from decades of debt crises, currency implosions, and political instability. Australia has a AAA rating, a strong currency, and robust institutions.

Screaming “Peronism!” is just scaremongering.

The “money running out” line is recycled doom-predicting. We heard the same about Medicare, super, and the NBN, and yet those programs became pillars of our prosperity.

This isn’t “performative incompetence.” It’s just not the trickle-down, corporate-dominated model that conservatives call the “free market” - while ironically championing tariffs now. Calling that Peronism is like calling Medicare Stalinism. It’s a slogan, not an argument.

Just ignore Burshtein and Swan. They're not a very bright pair.

"Just ignore Burshtein and Swan. They're not a very bright pair".

They are much brighter than you - a simple fool who is more interested in who says something than what they say. Just the sort of low-information ignoramus who is in for one hell of a shock.

You can't tell your arse from your elbow.

ttbn,

That’s a bit rich coming from someone who just got their “Peronism” narrative dismantled point by point and clearly has nothing to say in defence of that.

If Burshtein and Swan really had a case, you’d be able to defend their arguments instead of lashing out with playground insults. But when the facts don’t line up, all that’s left is noise.

Calling me a “simple fool” doesn’t change that Australia isn’t a Marxist command economy, hasn’t “run out of money,” and isn’t on track to become Argentina.

You’ve got slogans and abuse - I’ve got evidence. The more you flail, the clearer that becomes.

G'day John,

Well said, very restrained on your part. ttbn has to open his bag of insults because that's all he's got, he doesn't have the mentality to launch a coherent argument of his own. What he does is read these naysayer articles coming out of extreme right field, then regurgitates them on this forum as if they are "fact". All that alarmist "Reds under the beds" nonsense, you would think was well and truly tossed out with the downfall of the Soviet Union about 35 years ago. But no, it seems there are still a few of the old class warriors like ttbn, trying to carry on the fight, alas it may be from the comfort of his commode down at the Shady Pines retirement home for Old Farts, but still trying save the world from those nasty commo's like Albo and Jim.

Daysh,

What a disagreeable character you are: lacking the ability to introduce a topic yourself, you lurk like a snake in the grass, waiting for someone to contribute so that you can rant and rave against whatever is said. You can't even tell the difference between an opinion and a review of someone else's opinion, in this case that of Dimitri Burshtein and Peter Swan.

No. You just fly at me, criticising me for not defending their opinions. I don't have to defend their opinions. If you want a defence, contact them. They are well known professionals who could put you on the right track, but only if you could muster the courage to confront them.

I can assure you that you have not “dismantled” their narrative. Your arrogance matches your ignorance.

You remain a simple fool; and while the Australian economy is not yet a Marxist one, it will be, thanks to fools like you.

Evidence? You didn't provide any evidence to back your first rant against me (against Bernstein and Swan, actually). You just have opinions, based on who knows what; and those opinions, entitled though you are to hold them, are rubbish - in my opinion.

So, Mr, Daysh, you carry on with your nonsense and continue making a galah of yourself - and, I suspect, keeping people who don't want to be bullied from contributing to OLO.

Your card has been marked.