The Rise and Failure of the Radical Right in Australia Geoff Davies
Failure? Radical Right has a firm grip on power (on both sides of politics) But... it s policies have failed and it has damaged our society
Left and Right don t mean what they used to Terms hide a major political shift Core of Rad Right is Market Fundamentalism
Right meant conservative Free enterprise, favouring big business Some government involvement in economy Ordered community, some social welfare Left meant socialist Government ownership of (parts of) the economy More social welfare ~1960
Today (Radical) Right market fundamentalist individualist verging on libertarian - no such thing as society, community neglected xenophobic, reactionary, anti-knowledge (Tea-Party ranting, denial of climate science) conservatives eclipsed ( wets, Turnbull)
Today Left anyone who disagrees with G W Bush anyone with more compassion than Genghis Khan anything left of RR Term of abuse as much as a useful identifier
Concerted post-war campaign Hayek s Mont Pelerin Society, 1947 Hayek: market rules outside family, altruism an evolutionary relic Friedman, Goldwater Triumph: Thatcher, Reagan Social engineering on grand scale
Balance?
Fraser - a measure of the change Liberal Party was liberal, anti-communist, socially progressive Fraser resisted market fundamentalism Very unhappy with Howard blocking boats Quit party after Abbott s accession
Market fundamentalism: based on pseudo-scientific neoclassical economics Two books and a blog: Text Text
Eight Elementary Errors of (MF) Economics Absurd assumptions - 1. We (collectively) can foretell future ( rational expectations ) 2. People are individualistic, competitive, rational - but we are also social, cooperative, intuitive, biased (hence fashion, advertising) 3. No economies of scale - Henry Ford? 4.Oblivious to emergent wealth - my neighbour s investment increases value of my property - belongs to neither of us
Eight Elementary Errors of (MF) Economics 5. GDP - measures activity involving money, does not take account of usefulness, harmfulness - does not measure quality of life 6.Economy is near-equilibrium - not during crash, not ever (a far-#om-equilibrium system) 7. Evidence ignored - return to shortly 8.No money or debt in macro-economic models - crucial blindness
Private debt/gdp (Steve Keen)
Change in debt => demand (Keen)
US demand & unemployment (keen)
Consequences of Crash Depression in many parts of US Rise of Tea Party Depression in periphery of Europe
Post-war economy vs Recent evidence ignored pre 1974 pre-crash GDP growth (#om 1960) 5.3% 2-4% Unemployment (#om 1953) 1.3% 5-10% Inflation (#om 1953) 3.3% 2-3%
US: stagnant median wage
Old right: Menzies Keynesian economic intervention Big spender - universities, Snowy Mts Govt ownership - 1 bank, 2 airlines, much infrastructure Tolerated active unions Thrown out of modern Libs?
Consequences of Market Fundamentalism Competition policy imposed, not debated Privatisation - no clear successes, several clear failures (Quiggin) Drop in services Employment insecurity Rural depression Housing bubble, mortgage insecurity
Consequences of Market Fundamentalism Resentments fed into Hansonism Scapegoats sought - boat people Tampa Terrorism scares
Consequences of Market Fundamentalism Draconian laws - imprisonment without charge, loss of habeus corpus, no refugee appeals Elastic borders (elastic law is no law at all) International agreements violated OK for super-rich to own media megaphones ABC intimidated and balanced - subversion of rule of law, - subversion of open democratic society
Consequences of Market Fundamentalism Inequality Intolerance Stress Loss of community Obesity (consumerism, food oligopolies...)
Legacy of the Radical Right Inferior economic performance, followed by... Global recession/depression Planetary disaster Social fabric and democracy weakened Slide to authoritarianism - or not?
http://betternature.wordpress.com