How Socialist should Australia be?

Originally posted by moorookamick ↑

There seems to be ongoing haggling on these threads about Capitalism
vs Socialism and the inability of most to distinguish Social Policies
by our Capitalist/Democratic governments and Socialist Policies per se.

To set the record straight lets look at the definition of Socialism
(we all seem to have a fair handle on Capitalism) :

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism

The distinguishing features of Socialism are, IMO, :
(a) The State ownership of the means of production & distribution
(b) no private property

True socialist policies either advocate/implement the State ownership
of the Means of Production & Distribution or the conviscation of private propery
by the State.

That to my mind is the "hard" side of Socialism.

In Australia since the mid 1980s (Thatcher in the UK & Reagan in the USA)
we have seen Aus sell off (privatise) our State Owned Enterprises (SOEs)
(Comm Bank, Qantas, Telstra etc etc) and States privatising Railways,
Electricity Generation & distribution etc)

Has this de-Socialistising been good for Aus? I simply dont know.
But the bottom line is that we as a country has drifted a flyshit towards
hard Capitalism compared to where we were at in say 1970.

So to the RWNJs who yearn for the 1950s & 60s.....think again eh?

So its interesting that some on these threads still think that Socialist Forces
are a real risk to Aus. We have only two significant Cimmonwealth SOEs
left: AusPost (started in the 19th C) & the NBN (a Johny come lately)
and IMO those two will be flogged off before 2025 as a neccessity to
pay down some of our mountain of debt accrued by the Libs 2013 to date
regardless of who is elected in a few months time..

Lets hope that the proceeds are not stuffed into the Pollies Pension Fund
(The Future Fund) like Telstra etc!

So where to from here?
Coincidentally or causally, we have seen the demise of Aus manufacturing
since the privatisation of SOEs starting in the mid 80s by the Hawke Government#
and to a reasonable person that de-industrialisation of Aus will continue
no matter which Government is elected come May.

Are we doomed to a Financialised/Gig economy where the Rich get richer
& workers & the poor get poorer and we export commodities owned by forneigners
with the minimum of Aus labour and import manufactured goods with the maximum
of foreign labour and outsource to the 3rd world every Aussie service possible.
( just talked to a South African Lady about my Foxtel and a Phillipino about
my phone problem and I forget whatelse to an Indian call centre!

# Again, ironically the RWNJs on these threads (I'm a middle of the road small l Liberal for the record)
have bagged previous Labor Governments as Socialist when in Fact the Hawke/Keating was the
biggest contributor to Capitalist policies in Aus since WW2:
(a) Floated the AUD & Started the privatisation of SOEs
(b) converted working class stiffs to being Capitalists via a Compulsory Super (no RWNJs objectios here
as Super being coersive...eh) which is almost exclusively invested in the Stock Market or Real Property
(How Capitailst is that eh?)

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I think there has been a substantial paradigm shift since the 70s in both economics and poilitics. We can no longer distinguish simply into capitalist vs socialist economics - this has morphed into a global corporatism where the corporations - in many so called western capitalist countries, now set the agenda for governments to follow.

The last two covid years has been a testament to this takeover by stealth - Big Farma setting health policies and directives for many countries which were in most cases - one could argue - damaging to public health and welfare.

One gets the feeling that Australia has resumed its colonial status - we have a foreign owned mining sector, we have no manufacturing left to talk of and we have a bloated public service which often hinders rather than promotes any real growth. We have a government system which is vulnerable to the claws of corporate lobbyists - which it now serves - rather than representing the welfare of its citizens. One can therefore also throw the old left-right political paradigm out the window as well - the left no longer represents the workers and the right no longer represents the small business sector - they both represent the global corporate machine.

We have the best governments money can buy