You’d think that people would have had enough of silly false dichotomies. I look around me and I see it isn’t so.
I look at columns like this one by Geoffrey Barker. In which he juxtaposes ‘government expenditure’ (good) with equity and fiscal conservatism (bad) with efficiency (and by implication inequity).
The future of the national economy is core business for the new government of Australia, Rudd said on 20 January, which, of course, implies that equity is presumably non-core, or epiphenomenal.
Yawn. . . .
I prescribe forty “hail Peter Walshes” before breakfast for a year.
So basically Barker doesn’t believe that fighting inflation to hang on to full employment isn’t all about the unsexy side of equity eh? Still pining for the sexy Whitlamesque type no doubt.
There’s a tendency in left of centre politics that annoys me even more — the implausible claim that we can transcend tradeoffs by understanding things in a new and profound way.
But maybe it’s not just the left. Reagan’s supply siders promised to cut taxes and increase government revenues. Of course if you were a silly old duffer who didn’t understand the Laffer curve then you’d think there was some kind of tradeoff involved in tax cuts.
Sometimes maybe it is possible to do more with less or to “capitalise on the economy’s potential for growth” by smothering it in environmental and affirmative action legislation. But mostly it’s about as plausible as the idea that spending 5 minutes a day on the ‘ab blaster pro 3000’ will turn you into a supermodel.
Alas, Walshie has gone on to bigger and better things.
Yes, indeed Jason. Walshie was always driven by his irritations rather than his enthusiasms. Made him a great (if in his own estimation, failed, finance minister). Unfortunately he’s now peddling misinformation on behalf of the cranks of the Lavoisier Group. We could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 100% and not end up in the middle ages as he claims. Pity. Waste of a good guy etc etc.