From: suter@fawlty8.eng.monash.edu.au (Mr D. Suter)
Newsgroups: aus.politics
Subject: Re: Will Victorians vote stupid yet again...?
Date: 2 Oct 92 11:36:09 GMT
Distribution: aus
Organization: Monash University

In article <3268@ariel.its.unimelb.EDU.AU> jcollier@ariel.its.unimelb.EDU.AU (John Donald Collier) writes:
>In <1992Oct1.003054.4992@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> suter@fawlty8.eng.monash.edu.au (Mr D. Suter) writes:
>
>>This Labor government has put this state into huge debt AT THE SAME
>>TIME as selling off huge amounts of govt assets (I'm not against
>>the latter per se but it just magnifies how much money
>>the govt has squandered). I and my children will suffer the 
>>"fallout" of this stupidity for quite a while. While you have to work hard
>>to mask Jeff Kennet and Pescott et al look good - this govt has finally
>>achieved that goal. 
>
>Yes, and experience elsewhere shows that a more conservative
>government will continue the same policies with even greater
>alacrity. You are about to purchase a pig in a poke, and
>a rather large pig at that. I hope it doesn't roll over on you.
>
>The same sort of "stupidity" was performed at roughly the same
>time (a bit earlier actually) in the US and, as I said, in
>Alberta and British Columbia. The debts and costs were of the same
>order of magnitude in all cases. An even bigger disaster is looming
>in the US as a result of Reaganomics driven de-regulation 
>of banking. Presumably this sort of disaster is perceived to benefit
>those who are supporting deregulation and economic rationalism.
>
>I don't know why you think a Kennett government will turn the 
>tide on deregulation and selling of assets. I suspect that they
>intend to do even more of the same. Time will tell, of course. 
>I am just glad that I will not be responsible, whatever happens.
>
I don't think you read my posting. I am talking about STATE
debt. Moreover, even if governments elsewhere had
squandered so much of tomorrows wealth then it would
still be a bad thing to not to sack the bad managers we are
lumbered with.
BTW did you know that the Labor governments TARGET
in their policy is to reduce state debt to the stage where
it is 15.5% of government revenue. THEY HAVEN'T LEARNED!
They are still content with throwing away 1/6 of
our taxes in interest payments (and that's a target!-
we can't even be sure, with their hopeless record
that they can even come close to this!). Moreover,
the very notion that they should set
such a target (predicated on a percentage of our
revenue rather than an absolute sum) is in
keeping with their complete lack of determination to
really tackle the problem. One suspects that they hope that
our revenue will rise (coming out of recession) and
that they will throwaway another bucketload of money
if given a chance.
As for the principle of selling off government enterprises/assets -
again you didn't read my posting. I'm not really against this.
In fact I'm generally for it. But the point is that you
ought to be making headway on reducing debt if your selling
off all of your assets NOT INCREASING IT!
If Kennet doesn't do a better job then I'll be the first to change
sides (yet again) - but at least you've got to give someone
else a chance after the present government are sacked. That's
called trying to use your vote to exercise some control
on the policies/actions of the government. It's all very
well to say the both sides are bad and that you are glad
you are not going to be responsible for whichever party
wins. There are some of us that are glad we are being given
the opportunity to pass judgement.
d.s.



-- 
David Suter - Dept. of Electrical and
Computer Systems Engineering, Monash University,
Clayton, Vic. 3168, Australia
ph 565 5682 Fax 565 3454