An economy (free market capitalist variety) exacerbating social problems? Who would have thought? Making some people richer while everyone else got poorer, no! Surely this cannot be, capitalism is meantt to be the way, the one way and the only way…
And a so-called left wing Labour government has missed the opportunity to do something about it. Well I’m sorry Deborah, we are going to have to agree to disagree here because you are maintaining the illusion that mass politics is an empowering device for the people whereas the obvious lesson in all of this is that the interests of the rich and powerful always come first in a politicians mind.
However aside from my cynical view there are some lessons here for us in Oz. In Britain, economic growth came from a boom in
real estate and its support services, wholesale and retail, and the financial sector itself (all massively dependent on the housing bubble).
For those people unable to buy a house, tough luck. Here in Oz, Mr Rudd and his cohorts are still directly propping up the housing market, which looks like averting for now a collapse in the house price bubble which translates into votes for Rudd.
Rudd too got a landslide victory on the back of a massive rejection of Howard and his contempt for the notions of a just society, yet they seem to be very keen to replicate the same symbolic gestures (bandaids for health and new buildings for schools) that Labour UK offered instead of grasping the chance to do something concrete. So as it is with the UK, one has to think it is likely to be with us in Oz.
Deborah Orr | The economy cannot be saved: it was all a mirage | Comment is free | The Guardian.
