Academics, armchair economists, libertarians and House Republicans are the only ones who take the “principles” of neoliberalism seriously. Governments here and across the Atlantic only stick with it in as far as it entrenches the rule of capital.

The right has provided an equally persuasive theory of why academics, armchair radicals, public servants, and arts students are the only ones who take the “principles” of Marxism seriously: that they are disaffected middle class idealists, with little experience in the non-public economy.

You can’t just play the dialectical materialist, class forces card to dismiss views. Barely anyone in Australia devotes their time to discussing the finer points of Austrian economics. The actual institutions of “neoliberalism” — for example, think tanks like the CIS — devote their time to arguing for their policy ideas, at the best of times with appeals to evidence and shared values. Passing these ideas off as some kind of Althusser-style ideology of prejudices and taboos is a cheap shot — and one which is also taken by the other side.

(oh you dont know about the name change in WW1 from Hapsburg to Windser?)

Nope, it wasn’t from Hapsburg who were the (Catholic) Imperial House of Austria.

By virtue of Queen Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – son of Duke Ernst I of the small German duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha – her descendants were members of the ducal family of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, with the house name of Wettin. Victoria’s son, Edward VII, and, in turn, his son, George V, reigned as members of this house.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Windsor

But this seems, well, a touch off topic.

Ah the ‘useful idiots’, tell the poor that god loves them better because they are poor, but god has a special place for the rich. EG the Anglicans, their head of church is the head of a country, yep Bessie talks to god all the time, which probably explains lot about the Hapsburgs (oh you dont know about the name change in WW1 from Hapsburg to Windser?), as well as the genetic inbreeding.

god bless them (actually I first typed “god less them” .. which is a much better idea actually).

If there really is a god, don’t you think she/he would be really, really pissed off right now?

Back to a glorious (fantasy) past, where money making was the pursuit of gentlemen, trading deals with each other and there was always force (or death or indefinite prison or deportation) to make sure the lower classes knew their place. A boot crushing into their faces all the time.

As usual there were all sorts of sycophants to justify it. The mouthpieces, for a little bit of money they would say anything. To my eternal credit (not that I actually deserve much) I tried in some small ways in the 80’s and 90’s to raise a voice against it. And found out very quickly how nasty it really was, Govt officers ringing up my clients to say I was a (quote) ‘a charlatan’. I so loved a year of unemployment due to these clowns (boys … my time now).

Oh I remember lots of (what I call) data points along the way. Terry Mcrann arguing in the late 80′s about sacrificing 25% of the population economically (which we actually did here in Oz anyone who believes the official unemployment numbers is an idiot). Or that great term ‘titty socialism’, from one of those great elite meetings (which I call greedy morons gobbing over greedy morons). Or even, one of the Murdoch/Packer (forgot which one) clan rabbiting on about the problem with “Australian elites”, and he was what?

None of these idiots had any understanding of modern societies, technology or wealth creation.

The death of science in the Anglo nations, the inventers of this nonsense. The death of manufacturing. The death of rationality. The death of anything meaningful but mindless consumption and watching ‘big brother’, while the big boys made their squillions. Oh and do you remember all the justifications for this, how much money we would all make. Productivity would climb, wealth would be made endlessly. I still await my millions from that arch neo-liberal clown Keating.

All while the ‘big boys’ made gobs of money, nothing was too much, a hundred million, a billion, a trillion. All off our backs.

Bail them out? I have a better idea this is a real use for Guantanimo Bay. Daily water boarding I say … after torture.

But Dudd has the answer, Workchoices lite, more emigration (especially low skilled workers .. yes your wages have to drop even more from those miserably low levels), cut research .. et al. Oh and cut tariffs on textiles and car manufacturing even more .. we really don’t have enough poor people (or a big enough trade deficit).

You know I remember when the left were the smart people, we saved capitalism from itself and developed systems to generate wealth for everyone. Here’s a radical thought why don’t we actually try that again.