From: phs265y@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
Newsgroups: soc.culture.australian
Subject: Re: Modern Day Miracle!
Date: 25 Sep 92 12:42:31 +1000
Organization: Computer Centre, Monash University, Australia

In article <1992Sep24.013100.12206@newshost.anu.edu.au>, cls157@huxley.anu.edu.au (Catherine L Smither) writes:
> In article <1992Sep23.123859.1@emu.insted.unimelb.edu.au> s342046@emu.insted.unimelb.edu.au writes:
>>
>>Yes its true, Australians are now starting to wake up to the fact
>>that economic rationalism is doing us no good.  Wonderful to see
>>my fellows start to lose patience, as I did some time ago, with
>>this odious philosophy.
> 
> Would someone kindly explain to me what economic rationalism is, and
> who these evil economic rationalists are?  I'm relatively new
> to Australia, and I feel I must have missed something here.  I hear
> the term bandied about (never by anyone who has anything good to
> say about it), but I really haven't a clue as to what it all means.

      Two of the par excellence economic rationalists of the 1980s were
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, who espoused the "trickle-down" theory of
economics; i.e. smash unions, slash welfare and give tax breaks to business and 
the rich, then the rich will stimulate the economy, invest and create jobs and 
eventually money will find its way down to the poor.

       Of course history shows us that all that happened was the rich got
richer, the poor got poorer, and the world economy went into its current
recession at the end of the 1980s.

       The New Right economic rationalists in Australia espouse similar
philosophies except they blame the recession on the idea that Thatcher and
Reagan didn't go far enough. So its all the lazy blugders living off welfare
(if they still can get it) and the unions who are to blame for the recession.

> 
> While you're at it, how about 'micro-economic reform'?  This
> appears to be a good thing...
> 

     micro-economic reform is a code word for workers taking wage cuts and/or
giving up their working conditions. In Australia, wage rises used to be tied to
the rate at which the cost of living increased. When the Labor government came
to power in the early 1980s, they were able to hold wages down through the
so-called "Accord". Now workers only get wage rises if they give up some of
their working conditions, eg: holidays, penalty rates, the 8 hour day,
maternity leave etc. This is supposedly called "wage rises linked to
productivity" and is the central idea behind micro-economic reform.


> My impressions (after six months) are that Australians are obsessed
> with economics.  So much of the paper & the evening news (on the
> ABC radio, anyway) are taken up with the parlous state of the
> Australian economy.  Has it always been this way, or is this just
> a recessional phenomenon?

    A lot of what is in our newspapers and evening news reflects what the
Australian ruling class is thinking. Basically they are in a crisis, they have
little or no idea why we got into recession in the first place and how we can 
get out of it. Neither the Liberal Party or the Labour Party has an economic
policy that satisfies the majority of the business community. 

                                      Tony Hartin
                                      International Socialist Organisation
                                      Melbourne