Prosper Australia

photo credit: sekundo

Throw out the theory! That’s what policy makers are doing world-wide. From neo-liberalism to neo-handouts, one must ask what has happened to confidence in free market theory? Which leader in the western world will stand up?

Failure to address the fundamental cause of this bust, the irrational expectations inherent in the lure of low risk profits from property flipping, is what has led us to the world-wide meltdown. Check the internet phenomenon of Casey Serin, the world’s most infamous flipper to see how short termed this line of thinking is.

The tragedy is that the bankers bailout will do nothing and now this trend has spread to aiding and abetting political donors in Europe as well. Democracy is now officially dead. Lobbyocracy rules decision making, distorting us from genuine, forensic analysis.

Check Fred Foldvary, the legendary editor of the Progress report on a brutal but effective reform process. There’s about 200 words of damaging analysis there, crucial to turning the world economy around.

At a point in time when we need our most intelligent thinkers working on how to re-shape society towards sustainability, the very people who have polluted our thinking processes are the ones who get the bailout.

Switching taxes off incomes and onto natural resources like land is the only way to stop future asset bubbles occurring. It is also the fairest way to ensure those who pay their taxes get a fair return on their investment in government. Land cannot be hidden in Liechenstein’s tax havens!

by Karl Fitzgerald

as published in Arena Magazine, Feb-March, 2008, Edition 93

In a period where the twin crises of global warming and the wealth gap are attacking society from both sides, policy makers are continually limited in their effectiveness by a two dimensional approach to economics.

Land prices have increased at 4 times the rate of GDP and dwarfed wages growth by 1000 to 1 since WW2 (The Poverty Inquiry to end all Inquiries, Tony O’Brien, Figure 1, p5) . Such damning statistics beckon the ALP to take a hard look at the economic fundamentals undermining union wage demands. For Julia Gillard’s ‘War on Poverty’ to be successful, policymakers must look outside the square.

2008 marks the half way point in our promise to halve world poverty with the Millennium Development Goal’s 2015 deadline. With the wealth gap accelerating in both Developed and Developing countries, a serious flaw is evident in modern economics.
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