I've been watching that documentary about John Howard and Menzies.
An otherwise ordinary doco that was startling in emphasising Menzies view
to promoting Australian manufacturing and the affordability of housing.
How things have changed ... and the party he founded bears no resemblance
to the party that carries that name today.
The economist gurus of Hayek and Freedman, and their apostles of Thatcher
and Reagan, ushered in a new world order of laissez faire economics,
where 'globalisation' was the mantra chanted and sung throughout the
Western world. The idea was simple in its audacity: let capital move
to where it may be
employed most efficiently. Labour would be
rewarded by the magic trickle-down effect. What nonsense!
It is pertinent to say that Australia's lawnmower industry began
because of successive government protectionist policies. It was about
'Nation building'. It was doubly pertinent that this occurred at the
height of the Australian Great Depression in the early 1930s.
I feel domestic politics needs to re-assert itself (over international)
and the priority for any government must be the looking after of its own
citizens and workers, its young and old, the poor, sick, and disadvantaged.
All very sad.------------------------
Jack
