The Rot in the Core

This is a paragraph from Troy Bramston’s column in today’s The Australian:

I’ve noted before that Labor has an agenda that seeks to transform Australia with bigger spending, more regulation and intervention in the capital, product and labour markets. But it needs to show voters how this improves their lives and is underpinned by values and principles in policymaking that have wide appeal. It needs to be bolder and more focused on delivery to get voter attention.

This is what is normally described as central planning. The governing model that impoverished the Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and many other once prosperous nations.

Of course Bramston is right. But the idea of transforming Australia through “bigger spending, more regulation and intervention in the capital, product and labour markets” is also core to the current Liberal National Party coalition.

And this is why … the economy is slowing, inflation is rising, standards of living are receding, social discord is increasing.

As Thomas Jefferson correctly observed:

The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.

This small elite, Australia’s political and bureaucratic mafia will first take care of themselves. And having done that, they will give it to Australians, good and hard.