Debating the stimulus and the rights of the needy

As Labor considers its next course of action leading to the upcoming Federal Budget, commentators and politicians should not be reticent in condemning the deep flaws of neo-liberal capitalism, and in suggesting progressive alternatives.

But such is the power of the dominant ideology, most cannot imagine a future without “capitalism”, whatever they may conceive it to be.

Nevertheless, we need alternatives which - as Habermas might explain it - place the “life-world” of human and environmental needs ahead of abstracted economic “systems”; which minimise exploitation by investing economic and political power in the hands of ordinary people; and which avoid destructive and parasitical speculative practices.

Whether we call it “Global Social Democracy”, “democratic socialism”, or something else - the need for change is immediate. The time for change is now.