Thomas (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} zharradan) wrote,@ 2009-03-09 16:37:00 |
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For some reason I still get emails from the Rudd campaign
So I guess if anyone wants to read that essay there's so much controversy over, here's a mirror:
http://forthehor.de/files/rudd_feb09_mon
It has some good points - the rejection of neoliberalism (or, I prefer to think, neoclassicalism) is very sound, and directly put in a way that reassures me. It feels nice to have a prime minister with this point of view during this time - compared to the opposition where last week, while losing her job as shadow treasurer, Julie Bishop gave a speech to a business club extolling Hayek and Murray "child slavery" Rothbard.
The essay is a bit shallow, though. Rudd describes social democracy as existing partly to resist leftism(!), saving capitalism from itself - he's right about the mechanics, but he doesn't venture why. It's also a pity how much of it is about America.. it makes sense, because America is at the heart of all of this and is the place where the worst of the worst was born, but it diminishes the relevance of the piece and, I think, has emboldened Turnbull in declaring him irrelevant. (It's also lead to bizarre claims like "socialism", and general imitations of U.S. Republicans, but I don't mind that because it's such a losing strategy for the Coalition!)
I like the strategy and future he lays out. He takes the demise of quasi-libertarian extremism for granted, and talks about how to combine social justice and social democracy. I think he idolises Keynes too much, though.. a few bits read like "told you so"s in the wrong way. In general, though, the internationalist economic programme he sets out is excellent given his ideological constraints.
The last section of the essay is just "fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you" to the Liberal Party over and over, so I can finally see why News Ltd. columnists have been so angry about it. My favourite line is actually a quote from Stiglitz - "the invisible hand appears invisible because it isn't there" - but the best part of Rudd's conclusion is when he describes his ideal: "a system of open markets, unambiguously regulated by an activist state, and one in which the state intervenes to reduce the greater inequalities that competitive markets will inevitably generate."
So I guess if anyone wants to read that essay there's so much controversy over, here's a mirror:
http://forthehor.de/files/rudd_feb09_mon
It has some good points - the rejection of neoliberalism (or, I prefer to think, neoclassicalism) is very sound, and directly put in a way that reassures me. It feels nice to have a prime minister with this point of view during this time - compared to the opposition where last week, while losing her job as shadow treasurer, Julie Bishop gave a speech to a business club extolling Hayek and Murray "child slavery" Rothbard.
The essay is a bit shallow, though. Rudd describes social democracy as existing partly to resist leftism(!), saving capitalism from itself - he's right about the mechanics, but he doesn't venture why. It's also a pity how much of it is about America.. it makes sense, because America is at the heart of all of this and is the place where the worst of the worst was born, but it diminishes the relevance of the piece and, I think, has emboldened Turnbull in declaring him irrelevant. (It's also lead to bizarre claims like "socialism", and general imitations of U.S. Republicans, but I don't mind that because it's such a losing strategy for the Coalition!)
I like the strategy and future he lays out. He takes the demise of quasi-libertarian extremism for granted, and talks about how to combine social justice and social democracy. I think he idolises Keynes too much, though.. a few bits read like "told you so"s in the wrong way. In general, though, the internationalist economic programme he sets out is excellent given his ideological constraints.
The last section of the essay is just "fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you" to the Liberal Party over and over, so I can finally see why News Ltd. columnists have been so angry about it. My favourite line is actually a quote from Stiglitz - "the invisible hand appears invisible because it isn't there" - but the best part of Rudd's conclusion is when he describes his ideal: "a system of open markets, unambiguously regulated by an activist state, and one in which the state intervenes to reduce the greater inequalities that competitive markets will inevitably generate."
