Alan Marel, North Curl Curlīanks play a major role in the collapse of cash Although he states that it hasn’t “taken off” here, it’s not for lack of trying, as our plutocrats seem to promote and fund the Coalition campaigns to their own commercial benefit, and the Liberal and Nationals’ current approach seems to be straight out of the Republican’s playbook. Gittins nails it, with his insightful article pointing out the failure of neoliberalism and the rise of plutocracy – government by the rich and powerful. Sure, sometimes the powers that be get it right, such as banning contractors being paid less for the same job as employees, but more often than not they get it wrong, as they did with pushing the Voice to parliament, the overreach by premiers in particular during the latter stages of COVID, and the failure early on to address the coercive effects of inflation. This has the effect of reducing individual initiative and self-responsibility, and leads to feelings of frustration and powerlessness. The average person in the street just wants to get on with life and bitterly resents the concentration of power in politicians, unelected officials and the so-called intelligentsia who think they know what’s best for us. Capitalism without restraints will always be a danger to those of us who are not among the mega-rich. The culprit is clear: global capitalism, along with its bastard child neoliberalism. Gittins has done an excellent summation of Martin Wolf’s insights into the current turn toward authoritarian leaders in many nations purporting to be democracies. We need to hear the voices of those in need before it’s too late. While the rich are spending obscene amounts of money building up their property portfolios, at the other end too many are becoming homeless or having to live tenuously in tents on land of which councils are over-protective. It’s more than time that effective national measures – including a special welfare tax on the wealthier, if necessary – are taken to address this, rather than leaving it all to charities and the declining goodwill of the general populace. Charities that are appealing to the public for contributions to meet some of the most basic needs for the ever-escalating numbers of increasingly disadvantaged people could tell us a thing or two about how fast we’re gaining in the inequity stakes. I have to take issue with Gittins’ use of the phrase that “this country’s not quite as unequal as others”. After all, going into politics should not be a career choice but should be a public service mission. It is crucial to keep these unions around and elect government representatives who have integrity and know that they should look after the majority over their loyalty to their party and big-time donors. Economics might be too hard for many to understand, and it is easy to fall into the trap of forgetting that the privileged “us” can become the marginalised “them” depending on the lobbying of big corporations versus unions. As in all other issues, it only takes a little time for Australia to follow suit. Ross Gittins tells a cautionary tale and has clearly elucidated how America took the wrong turn with its economic policy (“ Saving democracy, Aussie style”, December 13).
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