The strange irrationality of neo-liberal economics

But perhaps worst of all is the resulting mentality of those who have paid their higher education fees is that it generates a mentality which says "I paid for my education so I'm entitled to gouge as much profit as I can from that knowledge." These self obsessed individuals create a different form of social organisation around them than do those who acknowledge the benefits they received from a society which grew them up and to which they want to contribute.

Whatever the past logic of imposing user pays fees on education or health, the time is fast approaching when such logic will be questioned. Precarious employment is fast becoming the new order of things. Trade union membership in Australia has fallen to about 17%. The neo-liberal economic pundits must be pleased with their pyrrhic success. Yes the ten per cent at the top of the economic ladder are gaining much more than the bottom 90 per cent. The number of people who are homeless is increasing. The number of prisoners is increasing. Our indifference to the plight of others is skyrocketing. Such a trajectory can't sustain itself forever – there will be a correction.

New jobs non-routine

Josh Zumbrun writing in the Wall Street Journal reported at the being of August this year that in the period beginning in 2001, the economy's job growth has come entirely from non-routine work. He says that:

In recessions of the 1960s and 1970s, routine jobs would fall during the recession but quickly snap back. But after the recession in 1990, something changed. Routine jobs fell and, as a share of the population, never recovered. In the recessions in 2001 and in 2007-09 they fell even further. The snapback never occurred, suggesting that many firms began coping with recessions by scrapping tasks that could be automated or more easily outsourced.

Greed is good for the one per cent but terrible for the rest of us

Those unabashed neo-liberals who pursue profit ahead of everything else loudly proclaim, "Greed is good". Clearly, the Wall Street bankers and share dealers in the run-up to the 2007 recession thought along such lines. The Occupy movement did not share their enthusiasm and for a brief period it looked as if there might be a halt to uncontrolled accumulation of wealth by a few at the expense of the many. This will eventually happen - but not yet.

If we are to return to the days of greater egalitarianism without a prior violent clash between the haves and the have-nots then this will necessitate either the top 10 per cent willingly distributing a substantial part of their wealth or a government getting elected with a mandate and a willingness to engage in wholesale redistribution from those at the top to those below them.

Either way, the obfuscation, mystification and irrationality of the neo-liberalism agenda will have to be sacrificed on the altar of decency.