Rob Canoe “From a distance, the U.S. seems to be wealthy and democratic country, but the question is wealthy and democratic for whom”

I discount your claim of US originated problems….

Plenty of folk from Africa and Asia attempt illegal migration to USA from areas which have never been subject to any US military activity.

I would further observe that blaming the plight of say Afghanistan or Iran on USA ignores the politics of both countries and in Afghanistan’s case, the invasion and attempted annexation by USSR.
Re NAFTA and Globalisation…. No, you are wrong. If anything Latin America Countries benefits from NAFTA. Maybe you might consider historic corruption in South America as having a more significant influence on economic opportunities than globalization. I know that does not conform to your anti-USA model but then, like I said previously, “No, you are wrong”

KerryAnn the 1950/60 were marked by a protectionist attitude, trade embargoes and quotas.

This forced Australian manufacturers to enter the Australian market with local production which had limited competitive benefits to consumers because they of the small Australian domestic market which lacked economies of scale.

Globalisation, which could properly be called a “free market” rather than “Protectionist market” environment was embarked on by Bob Hawke and has been followed through on a bipartisan basis since.
The problem with a protectionist economic policy is
Other countries reciprocate in kind and every one loses, especially the consumers in the protected environment.

Lexi “we've all been sold a "bill of goods," as far as the US is concerned.”

Tell me, how many people have ever tried to get smuggled in to any of the old communist countries….

Answer… not many

in other words

Toward Capitalism away and from Collectivism

“well I know you're not being serious here - but you're simply stirring. In any case take an intelligent guess and I'm sure that you'll be able to answer your own question.”

I am serious but I was not addressing the question to you.

and I would never challenge you by expecting you to produce the answer to any” intelligent” question.

Corporate greed

-I will just pop your title up before me I don’t get side tracked.

Yabby’s correct about population. If your serious lobby for aid + birth control.

Now to corp- greed-(CG) Poor Indonesian farmers and families having gone backup because of CG.- That’s Corporate Greed.
We the AU tax payers are funding this $780.00 pa.
So CG is alive & well but the AU media & Gov wont report the truth.
There are several corps involved Elders Wellards.

thinker 2,
Sorry, I had a IT problem & couldn’t get Tonys link-

http://www.oziz4oziz.com/restoring-prosperity---details.html

Ammonite I will just say hi.

Rob there will be plenty of solar offered pre election.

Col Rouge- Agreed and everybody has followed. Thanks for your addiction to the IP thread.

I would have liked to got into that with but maybe another time

Col Rouge,

Any generalisation is not good. You might be RIGHT that there are several Third World countries which have not yet been negatively affected by the western imperialism.

However, Latin America is not probably a good example of a positive impact of free trade. Haiti, Guatemala, Bolivia, Venezuela have been subject to the U.S. military interventions when popular governments won elections over the last half a century. Haiti is a country which has been totally destroyed both environmentally and economically by French and American imperialism. It has taken Chile 30 years to recover from the Chicago School of Economics shock therapy introducing free market economy there.

There has been backlash with a pink wave across the Latin America over the last 10 years. It seems that they have not considered NAFTA as something beneficial as you claim.

However, I agree with you in your last point. The U.S.-style free market / neo-liberalism is far more friendly than the Soviet-style protectionism. However, there is a lot of room for something in between. I am sure that I am RIGHT suggesting a reasonable level of protectionism.

The recent examples of neo-liberalism have often resulted worldwide in the decline of democratic rights so the protectionism is the only way we could preserve democracy. Without democracy, we will never overcome climate changes.

Kerryanne,

With respect to our discussion on regional development and rapid transportation system, I have rather meant high speed train system with speed > 400 km/hr so you would be able to travel much faster to Perth than on your current rapid train. There is currently some planning work underway in Australia, but generally on the east coast and in a limited scope.

It would not only allow for the revival of the regional Australia, but it would also offset greenhouse emissions associated with current transportation means. In this context, the idea is not new. Barrack Obama, as part of his pre-election commitments regarding climate change issues, has also started planning and development of high speed train system in U.S. with assistance of European companies.

Therefore, we should be lobbying for both renewable energy and high speed train system.

@ Yabby:

I wasn't actually referring to you - I'm certainly no economics expert, but some of what you write here about economics makes a good deal of sense, and I certainly agree with you on world population. Where we mainly differ on economic matters is that I don't share your somewhat nihilistic view of the future.

Which is of course why I support the Greens. While they're open to valid criticism on the detail of their policies, they at least provide signposts towards moving our economic system to one that is sustainable in the long term. They provide parameters within which the Australian electorate might have a chance at the peaceful economic and social reforms that will be necessary if we want to avoid total systemic collapse.

Your perspective provides a quite plausible scenario for how things are likely to turn out if we don't make major reductions in greenhouse emissions in the very near future. The 'business as usual' crowd to whom I referred are either in total denial about AGW, Peak Oil and overpopulation, or they just assume that if we take care of the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves.

I too Morganzola feel represented by the Greens these days and am part of the drift from Labor.Their policy platform is much closer to the Labor values that I would believe important .

Not so happy with the leadership of the Greens however, whom for mine concentrate overly on issues of a social nature and therefore are lightweights on the meatier issues. Even irrelevant at times.

Those issues being the economy and environment. Yes the environment ! ; I see the Greens at least needing too get the ball rolling on these meatier issues, rather than taking hard line positions on progress and acting as blockers rather than achievers in the Senate. We (the voters) will know the outcome of the change of power in the Senate to the Greens, soon enough.

To get back on to the subject "corporate greed and the environment", only a Gov't prepared to re-regulate our economy, (in the face of the onslaught from business), will save our environment.