What are the five most precious things in my life? [Published by Pearls & Irritations 21 Dec.] I have wondered often lately what might catch the attention of those who are busy despoiling our planet, and cause them to reflect on what they are destroying, and whether that matters to them. What if they asked… Read More Barack Obama wants us to care about the oceans
The global consumer-capitalist machine is well-programmed to consume the planet in its quest to produce ever-more stuff. Avoiding pollution is incompatible with its present functioning. If we want to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions we need to know how to get inside the machine and turn it off, or transform it. [Published 6 Nov by… Read More Why are climate warnings ignored?
Deregulation basically allowed the financial system to break out of its relatively small, useful role and become a huge parasite, sucking wealth to the already-wealthy and depriving the poor and middle class.… Read More How Ronald Reagan Started the Ruination of the USA
GDP counts exchanges that involve money (adjusted to avoid double counting). Somebody is paid, and somebody pays. GDP doesn’t tell you who paid, just that somebody did.… Read More No Minister, high immigration will cost us $320 billion
It is possible to create a much fairer, safer and more durable society than we have at present. The means are available, if we dispense with myths and special interests. It is there for us to do.… Read More A Thrival Budget
We ought, more accurately, to talk about the money supplied by the the federal government, instead of a deficit in government accounts. The so-called government deficit is also the private sector’s surplus, which it can use constructively.… Read More Two big budget fallacies harming Australians
The neoliberal, social engineering experiment in privatisation has been an economic failure and a social disaster. Underpaid, insecure, fearful people can become desperate. They can look for someone to blame, and someone to save them.… Read More What if Labor has still got it all wrong?
The ‘skills shortage’ that we hear of incessantly reflects two things. One is that we have not been educating and training our young people properly. That would be because our TAFEs have been outsourced and wrecked and our universities gutted in the name of neoliberal market fundamentalism.… Read More Jobs summit: Aren’t we capable of providing for ourselves?
It is getting harder to place non-mainstream commentary in either online or traditional media. The reasons are not very clear, but the continuing disruptions by social media evidently are the underlying problem. My take on our society is anchored in my analysis that reveals mainstream economics to be hopelessly misguided and misleading, and in my… Read More Thrival economics?
Thrival Economics 