Filed under: Economics | Tags: Consumption, Credit Crunch, Economics, Global North, neo-Keynesianism, neoliberalism
It seems that everywhere I look, every article I read, every comment or analysis remotely related to finance, economics, or the current global malaise is directed to one aim: bringing down Neoliberalism.
Blaming neoliberalism for our current problems is convenient. Very convenient. Like communism in the 50s, drugs in the 80s, or terrorism in the naughties; neoliberal economics would seem to be this decade’s convenient source of blame for all our problems.
Declaring a ‘war’ on terror ignores the causes of terrorism.
Declaring a ‘war’ on the supply and distribution of drugs in the Global South ignores the underlying demand for them by those in the Global North.
And declaring a war on Communism ignores the underlying attractions of a system that manages to achieve a Gini Coefficient (a measure of inequality in wealth distribution) on par with more developed OECD countries, despite obvious imabalances in national wealth and GDP between them.
Blaming Neoliberal thought for our current global crisis ignores the fact that those in the Global North possess a seemingly unquenchable desire to consume above and beyond their pay grade, racking up mountains of debt and houses larger than they could possibly need or afford.
But I’m not nearly qualified to debate the problem. There are many more qualified people debating the pros and cons of neoliberlism: who were the architects, where we went wrong, and what should be done now.
Some of these are particularly good arguments. Like this particularly well thought out analysis from Crikey’s Steve Keen upon the current ideological battles being fought out between current Prime Minister Rudd and former Prime Minister Howard.
Now I would never be one to fight in the corner of Neoliberalism. If I were to resist my urge against classification and generalisation I would label myself a ’social democrat’ rather than a ‘neoliberal’. But I can’t help but wonder whether this current phase of neo-Keynesianism or anti-neoliberalism is just that: a phase.
Is neo-Keynesianism this year’s ‘black’? Like cowboy hats, leveraging, the Yo-Yo or those pants that look like adult diapers, is Neoliberalism merely out of fashion for the next couple of decades, only to rear its Hydraic head in another form … perhaps NEO-neoliberalism! Or should that be NEW-neoliberalism … do two neos make a wrong?
Filed under: Activism | Tags: Digital Economy, ISP Filtering Policy, Rudd Government, Senator Conroy
So I recently wrote an email to the Rudd Government about their ludicrous plans to introduce filtering into all Australians’ access to the Internet. I also wrote to the Greens and the Opposition.
You can see the transcript of this email here.
I received pretty standard response from both the Greens and the Liberals, from someone in their offices dealing with this particular policy. They were pretty predictable, but well received nonetheless. And I got a response in a timely fashion.
However from the Government, more specifically from the office of the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, I got this response:
Dear Mr Clay
Thank you for your recent email to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.
If you would like a reply to your email please provide your full postal address within 7 days, and every effort will be made to respond to your questions and comments as soon as possible.
Please note that if no address is provided within 7 days a formal reply will not be sent, although your comments will be noted.
Yours sincerely
Parliamentary Liaison Section
RIDICULOUS! Is this the correct response to receive from the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy?
Please send us your postal address quoting a reference number and we will POST you a letter?! That would be laughable if it weren’t so depressing.
This is a clear demonstration of how behind the eight-ball the government and Minister Conroy is. Prime Minister Rudd can harp on about his (now disastrously enacted) NBN and how every ‘working family will have fibre-to-the-node’ (like he knows what that means) but this just demonstrates how these are nothing but fair-weather headline-grabbing promises, and at its heart, the Rudd government has no clear handle on the ‘Digital Economy’.
