neo-liberalism

The economic ideology, falsely termed a science, which demands minimum government intervention in the economy, otherwise referred to as "dry economics" or "economic rationalism".

About economic neo-liberalism

'Economic neo-liberalism' otherwise know as 'economic rationalism', not that long ago, rightly dismissed as an extreme ideology deservedly distantly removed from the mainstream has, since the late 1970's become elevated to become the almost unchallenged orthodoxy in the Anglophone world, most of the Third World and the former Soviet bloc.

Whilst if professes to based on solid intellectual and scientific foundations, it is, in reality, no more so than religions which were used in past epochs to gain acceptance for social arrangements to suit the economic interests of small privileged elites.

Quotes

…Self-discipline has not been seen as a great virtue by citizens of the West over the last few decades. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was popularly assumed to be a preference of the Right, and this misapprehension remains in the political debate. But nothing could be less disciplined than the New Right, with its romantic mythologizing of freedom, equality and individualism in order to obscure such practical policies as the legalization of dishonest speculation through financial deregulation. The New Right is even more undisciplined than the liberal middle classes…
From the Chapter chapter titled “Of Princes and Heroes” of John Ralston Saul’s “Voltaire’s Bastards”.
This was posted by -211993">‘Smiley’ to on 25 May 2008.

Jeff Kennett's Legacy

Kennett's legacy to Victorians has been no Victorian on the public payroll has a secure job, their employment can disappear a the stroke of a pen.

The local council is staffed by compulsory part timers and town planners lurch from 3 month contract to 3 month contract leading to no continuity of planning decisions and less than fearless and forthright planning decisions.

Local council services for the less well off in the community are provided by part time staff so that programs for the elderly are haphazard.

Teachers can spend up to 10 years on contract applying for their job and 50 others in the area every 6 months.

Patients in private hospitals as well as public hospitals are in the tender care of nurses who were hired at the start of the shift who don't know their way around today's workplace.

Because we still have employer based superannuation schemes older workers are not able to find meaningful permanent work.

In short Kennett's reforms were a disaster for working women and state public servants in Victoria throwing them out of secure employment and forcing those who were retrenched to continue in casual work or face a poverty stricken old age.

I think the rent seekers are those leeches in the financial services sector.