In my previous post I outlined why jobs don’t come from rich people: capitalism runs on spending (sales), not savings. Job opportunities appear naturally when businesses forecast sales growth and expand output accordingly (and similarly disappear under reverse conditions). When viewing the economy as a whole, we can observe that private sector investment responds to rising incomes and spending as entrepreneurs expand output to match market demand and banks have confidence lending. In the absence of spending growth, accumulated savings do nothing.
The thing is, Democracy will end.
At some point the current dominant expression of Democracy – Universal Franchise with mass political parties and redistributive taxation – will fail to deliver solutions to urgent problems: Climate; Migration;War; National Sovereignty – and it will be discarded for something else.
Talking Politics
I have just discovered the excellent Podcast Talking Politics which discusses UK, US and European and International Politics.
You must subscribe to Talking Politics. It is put together by David Runciman of Cambridge University and provides commentary and analysis in the best British academic tradition – informed, fair, objective, funny. It is absolutely brilliant.
I have awoken with the urge to blog for the first time in many moons and offer you this otter doing a backflip at Capron Park Zoo in Massachusetts.
A shorter version of this post (with proper spoiler alerts) was first published at ACRAWSA blog on 7 June 2019. Many thanks to director Partho Sen Gupta and to Prof Alana Lentin for entrusting me with tix to a film on a Sunday night in Randwick (in the pouring rain! see review, below).
Love in the Time of Terror: Slam at Sydney Film Festival
Review by Ingrid Matthews
[Alert: Spoilers]
We can learn lessons from cities like Paris, but we must be wary of the dangers in importing solutions that might work well elsewhere but aren’t matched to local circumstances Is Paris the right model for the Sydney of 2050?
This is Part 3 of my “Uninformed Speculation” series on the 2019 Federal Election.
According to the ABC election calculator, there was a 0.8 percent swing against the Liberal Party and a 1.0 percent swing against the Labor Party. The Liberal party leader is the prime minister and the Labor Party leader is headed for the back bench.
Where did the votes go?
Following on from my uninformed speculation about the Federal Election result I would like to add some uninformed speculation about the new Labor Leader and Deputy Leader.
The result will be: ALP 74 LNP 71 GRN 2 OTH 4 CLIVE PALMER 0
which means a ALP Minority Government supported by two Greens, Andrew Wilkie and Rob Oakeshott. Oakeshott will become Speaker. You heard it here first.
How We Will Get There
The 2016 result was LNP 76 ALP 69 GRN 1 OTH 4
One of the most important pieces on media criticism in recent times is Richard Cooke's NewsCorp: Democracy's greatest threat. Read it if you haven't, see you when you get back.
Pearls before swineAs someone who has been critical of journalists myself, I applaud the line about the gravitron (rather than the gravitas) of The Good Murdoch Journalist. However, such an image is worse than unfair: it's inaccurate.
One of the most important pieces on media criticism in recent times is Richard Cooke's NewsCorp: Democracy's greatest threat. Read it if you haven't, see you when you get back.
Pearls before swineAs someone who has been critical of journalists myself, I applaud the line about the gravitron (rather than the gravitas) of The Good Murdoch Journalist. However, such an image is worse than unfair: it's inaccurate.
This is a vital free speech issue, so I’ve initiated a petition “Don’t discriminate against Israel Folau” and urge all readers to sign it. I don’t endorse all of Folau’s views, but I endorse his right to have and to express them. He is employed as a football player, and he executes that job brilliantly. […]
