another great article from mark latham

From an article in today's Age, Latham tells us what the non-voodoo economists know, the age of entitlement is coming to an end.

"... opposition industry spokesman Kim Carr wants to fit Australian manufacturing into a big, sloppy Ugg-boot. He has repudiated the Keating-Button legacy with the retro-economics of corporate welfare.

Carr tries to give the illusion of a sophisticated strategy, using fancy terms such as “co-investment” and “industry policy settings”. In fact, he believes in a crude, Third World-type tactic: throwing government funds at multinationals. We know the Australian people don’t support this approach because they have been unwilling to throw their own money at locally produced cars. As taxpayers, why would they want to do something they have refused to do as consumers?

If the shoe doesn’t pinch, companies become complacent and inward-looking. They grow accustomed to living off state welfare, instead of investing in new design technologies and productivity. Under Ugg-boot economics, the private sector is pampered by the regular arrival of government cheques."

Link to article - you may need to be registered to access

...and dare I say it, the Labor party has the same outdated attitude to IR, but the voters can't see it. Until it smacks them in the eye.