Yesterday I spoke with journalist and political commentator Chris Trotter about the things he thinks we need to preserve in our way of life and those we need to change.
We struggled a bit with a poor internet connection but please bear with this interview as Chris has some very insightful comments to make about where we ought to be headed as a nation.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
Well , that was a treat, to be fair. And perfect common sense coming from C.Trotter . The repeat of the Bauer situation can and has happened, and the potential for massive overseas buy-ups of yet more of our industry’s for a song, – repeating history of the mid 1980’s and early 1990’s.
An interesting point is how Scot Morrison’s conservative / neo liberal govt has done better in protecting their industry’s than ours is a case in point to consider. But its not just large concerns that will go to the wall, – it is hundreds of smaller concerns that balance their budget tightly measured sometimes in weeks, – from the lawn mowing operation to the small time steel fabricators, – the domino effect on these and fallout is going to large.
And it is not enough to quote neo liberalism’s fundamental ‘ that an inefficient business should fail to make way for a more efficient one’… especially when those businesses formed the foundation of money circulation and employment for tens of thousands and were formed during the ‘ neo liberal understanding’. And now because of circumstances beyond their control , – they become victims to that same ideology.
Particularly when we see the so – called Tax Payers Union whose ideology remains staunchly in the neo liberals camp, – is now seen to have held out their hands for a govt bail out . Yet other industry’s that do produce actual tangible goods and provide genuine employment are simply left to the wolves. You would not be mistaken for remembering with chagrin the hypocritical cry of other large scale (almost exclusively firm neo liberalist’s) corporate enterprises who were deemed ‘Too big to fail ‘ and received the tax payers ever shrinking ‘ largesse’.
I can only see a return to the days of Micheal Joseph Savage, or later decades right up to 1984, – the year NZ was changed forever, socially and economically, – as the panacea to NZ’s social and economic health. But in order to do that, the World Bank and the IMF would have to radically change their settings, – reminiscent of why they were formed for in the very first place. So that implies a global consensus. And in NZ , for example , the changing of the Reserve Bank Act , – with the NZ govt then having direct control.
But because of the nature of this pandemic, – goods and services may be at a premium and thus inflationary if some sort of global easing is to be undertaken. Alternatively, as consumers are put on tight constrictions, their ability to ‘consume’ may mean a very sluggish recovery of long standing. Such is the Achilles heel of the flawed neo liberal experiment and its clamour for ‘growth’ at all costs.
Yet afterwards, we may see a booming small business revival, and many of the skilled workers who are now effectively unemployed resuming their former occupations but under a different logo. Time will tell.
But what price did the millions of people around the globe including here in NZ pay for allowing and then continuing to pursue such a flawed ideology? Such folly was bound to come unstuck sooner or later. And yet again, that time has now come.
And what price do we all pay if we simply repeat more of the same? Have we learnt nothing ? As history repeats,- as shows the Laissez-faire of the 1920’s precipitating the Great Depression to the crashes seen by the rampant free market greed and social / economic dislocation that neo liberalism caused during the 1980’s/1990’s, – vulnerabilities that should have exposed and weaned us off their falsehoods in the first place.
Economists talk – or used to until recently – blandly of an economic reset as if the majority of peoples lives do not matter. And as people lost their mortgages and homes, others their jobs and businesses , as unemployment figures rose massively, as the social fabric unfolded, – these same economists seemed to be only concerned with the plight of the extremely wealthy and the effects of an economic downturn on the 1%.
And thus was the ‘Too big to fail’ mantra invented.
I guess the real issue is: ‘Are we prepared to tolerate yet more of the same without so much as a whimper and / or some serious questioning as to the claims made by the far right neo liberals?’… and the secondary question being,… are we too disparate in modern society to come to a common consensus outside of political circles and their big business lobbying?
Do the ‘people’ still like to subscribe to the principles of democracy of a ‘government by the people for the people’ ? Yet easily roll over and capitulate to ‘Government knows best’ ? When even the power of the vote has often changed little in changing the negative effects on the many of free market neo liberalism? So perhaps this is the problem,… that we have been divided , and our business institutions, political world body institutions hijacked over the last 3 decades, – and our sense of power to effect change through the vote diminished.
In any major ‘ reset ‘ of the global economy there are a very small number of people who benefit greatly, in both economic and political power over us. I cannot help the lingering thought that perhaps this is happening right now as we speak and sleep. It will be fascinating to see how all this pans out for the ‘global citizen’, -the Mr and Mrs /Ms averages of this world. In both the economic and democratic process.
And what is this Labour led government actually going to do about it?
I do not know… whatever they are pressured to do I suppose, .. the question is,- who will do the pressuring?
Sometimes,… the issues get quite heady and are like looking through a sparkling prism with so many angles. Much like a glass of sparkling apple cider. Therefore , to ease the brain strain, I went and bought some.
Cheers!
And here’s a wonderful song that was always a favorite of mine for its ‘ infectious’ cheerful silliness.
Enjoy.
Fiddler’s Dram – Day trip to Bangor 1980
https://youtu.be/T8WiPy1xSkw
Thank you, you two!
Your comments, Chris, about foreign capital hit home – again! – after I read in this morning’s paper that…
90% of our paracetamol is imported from China (not to mention a myriad of other medicines and medical supplies);
our supermarkets are largely Australian-owned.
And then, of course, our banks are largely Australian owned;
our major magazine mast-heads were German-owned (re the Bauer $1 sale-price debacle);
and the Easter chocolate bunny I consumed yesterday was made in Germany, imported to NZ by an Australian-owned company to an Australian-owned NZ supermarket – and not so long ago we sold Cadbury’s chocolate factory in Dunedin.
DUH!!?? What ignorant idiots we are – and have been for all the ill-titled ‘neo-liberal’ years!
Roll on the revolution!
@ VV.
Or…
Are we humans as a whole starting to see a new dawn?
A biosphere for one and for all? Does it really matter where chocolate’s made so long as chocolate’s made?
Is not our biosphere simply a ball of rock with bits of that rock sticking up here and there through expanses of salty water ( Which is itself teaming with ‘life’.) and populated by culturally diverse individuals which are different from each other yet the same?
Are we seeing the merciful end of the kind of global, capitalist feudalism that’s nearly fucked not only us but our biosphere and the beginning, the very dawn of a global, pan-cultural socialism?
Lets face it? We can’t go on like this for much longer. Even after covid-19 buggers off we still have climate change and a collapsing global ‘economy’ to consider and all that’s counter-weighted against a global population of nearly 8 billion and most of them want the lifestyles we enjoyed, the greedy wasteful ones which has brought our planet to its knees.
Really? What’s wrong with getting paracetamol from China? Their paracetamol’s saved me from many a hangover and if we AO/NZ’ers could just rid ourselves of the scourge that is our agricultural producer boards and their bankster masters we could send the world foods that were not from endangered species.
We humans on our Individual Islands of Muds poking up here and there are not the problem. It’s of how we’re being exploited by all bought and paid for politicians and their masters. The ones were their ‘growth’ mantra, being the logic of cancer, is sewn into their little jersey collars.
Dumb fucking trump can’t hide, nor can any other dipshit. ( Think bolsonaro? I mean? What a fucker!? ) Neither can our own cadre of swine. The banksters can’t lobby politicians to start wars to make profits from us killing each other. ‘Our boys’ are now all over the internet/social media so they’re not going to sign up to be blown to pieces for some bizarre, egomaniacal Major General Lunatic Mc Puptent to wank on about. We’re all way too hip for that man. This is NOT 1939. This is 2020! And about fucking time!
My humble advice?
Chill the fuck out. We should wait to worry. The global, collective ‘we’ can do much better than this.
The ‘We’ don’t need to hate and starve and be sick and watch the stain on that wall fade that was once the next door neighbours kid.
We don’t need that shit. We’re done. Time for a new thing and I think now’s a bloody good time to begin to enact that.
‘Our boys’ are now all over the internet/social media so they’re not going to sign up to be blown to pieces for
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‘ some bizarre, egomaniacal Major General Lunatic Mc Puptent to wank on about’.
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We’re all way too hip for that man. This is NOT 1939. This is 2020! And about fucking time!
ROFL !… Write a book one day please,… every post is a colourful chapter in its own right.
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