"These dreadful people are intent only on creating obstruction; banging on about the same thing, week after week, deluded that if they keep it up long enough they will get their way." ttbn has finally realized what he is, spends half his day bagging on the forum, 6 posts in 3 hours. probably not allowed out of the backyard in his miserable real life.

ttbn wrote in his first post...."(Burshtein & Swan, ‘Don't cry for me Australia’, 2/8/35)."

I'm guessing its a typo and he meant to write 2/8/25. But it turns out to be quite the prescient Freudian slip.

Because, while what ttbn and his sources wrote, probably isn't obvious to the less cognoscente among us t the present time, come 2035, it'll be very clear that the centralisation of power and wealth was the aim. The recent so-called Productive Summit which was restricted to Big Government, Big Business and Big Unions is a pointer to where the nation is headed under current leadership. Note there wasn't a murmur of dissent from the Libs who are effectively on board with all this, just not on board with who is leading it.

All of this concentration of power and wealth is possible while-ever the elite can buy off the electorate with electricity subsidies and parades and ever increasing welfare. But when the music stops and there's no more largess to buy off the voters, things will be very different. Come 2035 we'll know how that turned out because the next decade isn't going to be pretty for the Aussie economy.

mhaze,

I now need an editor to edit my edits.

I appreciate your sensible comments on the topic.

mhaze,

So now we’ve gone from “Australia is already Peronist” to “it’s not obvious now, but maybe by 2035”? That’s not prescience, that’s hedging your bets.

This “centralisation of power” line is just slogan politics. Australia’s private sector still drives the economy, competition is alive and well, and wealth is less concentrated here than in many OECD nations. The Productive Summit you mention? Similar forums have been run under Liberal governments without cries of creeping Marxism.

Electricity subsidies and welfare aren’t “buying off” voters, they’re standard policy tools used by both major parties. Medicare and superannuation were called vote-buying gimmicks once too, yet decades later they’re pillars of prosperity.

If you’ve got hard evidence that Australia is heading toward a Marxist-style, centrally planned economy, produce it. If not, vague predictions about 2035 are just a safety net for a failing argument today.

It is annoying when a poster can't agree to disagree, but keeps on, and on, and on, disagreeing, long after everyone else has lost interest.

But it is also sad, pathetic. What sort of life does such an obsessive person have that he keeps trying to make people believe that his opinions are superior to everyone else's? He claims to 'prove' that he is right; that he deals in 'facts'. No, he does not. He is just another sad windbag, full of BS.

ttbn,

You keep calling me a “windbag full of BS” with “no facts,” but here’s what I’ve actually put on the table:

-- Australia is not a Marxist economy: The private sector still drives every major industry, competition is alive, and we’re one of the most deregulated markets in the OECD. That’s not central planning or “state monopoly capitalism.”

-- Coalition did the same: Past Liberal governments heavily subsidised fossil fuels and bankrolled industries. If that’s Marxism, then your own heroes were Marxists too.

-- Argentina analogy fails: Argentina collapsed after decades of debt crises, currency crashes, and political chaos - not because they invested a bit in their own industries like we’re doing here. Australia has a AAA rating, strong currency, and stable institutions.

-- “Money running out” is recycled fear: Conservatives said the same about Medicare, superannuation, and the NBN. Decades later, those programs are pillars of prosperity, not signs of Marxist ruin.

-- 2035 prophecy is hedging: mhaze already pushed the alleged economic collapse a decade out because there’s no evidence of it now. That’s not foresight, it’s moving the goalposts.

You’ve responded to none of this. No counter-evidence, no rebuttal, just personal insults and attempts to paint persistence as obsession.

Facts don’t stop being facts because you’re tired of hearing them. Calling me a windbag won’t change that your Peronism narrative collapsed the moment it was challenged.

And yet somehow, I’m the one you call nasty…