freediver wrote on Jun 5^th, 2022 at 3:38pm:


When the government is selling our property to their mates at 20% its value at best it is very much the case that it should have not been sold. Just as the fact that nobody has been able to point to one single successful privatisation.

freediver wrote on Apr 10^th, 2022 at 7:53pm:


Why.....................??

They ran them in the past, its only since neo-liberalism came in the early 80s led by the Hawke Keating government that the Government owning anything is considered communism.

Globalization and free trade is the oligarchs laws imposed on governments who for what ever reason pass them.

The world was a better place when we were under the Keynesian economic system rather than this neo-liberalism we have today were corporations run the show and not governments.

Before the early 1980s our and every government in the free world were not only a player but also THE coach of the team.

What do I mean by that, well you had a choice you either work for government or private industry.

Not only that if a bank wanted to do something that might jeopardise the country the Government could step in put them over its knee and give them a good spanking.

Remember the 2008 GFC......!?

The bottom line of the neo-liberal treatise is,

"Put everything into the hands of corporations and all else will sort itself out"

What a load of malarkey that is.

We've had nearly 40 years of it houses are now affordable by the time your current kids and then grand kids grow up forget it lol.

Everything has been going up except wages n salaries.

What will it take for people power to come to the fore.

Does it have to get down to not being able to put a steam on the table or buy a beer at the pub.

Surely we are smarter than that.

Ajax wrote on Jun 6^th, 2022 at 1:45am:


About sums it up

freediver wrote on Jun 5^th, 2022 at 9:30pm:


All of the above and plenty more.

Essential services should be provided by government when practical to do so.

Essential product availability should be protected by government but privately provided (not essential) in many cases.

Ajax wrote on Jun 6^th, 2022 at 1:45am:




Great post.



To add...
Our government is also a corporation.
We, as free humans, have the right to walk away from any corporation dealings.
I never signed a thing to say that I will abide by any corporation and their workplace rules

That's all the laws can be now, work place rules and terms of employment.

Jasin wrote on Jun 5^th, 2022 at 9:24pm:


You have it back to front.  Multinational corporations and private financiers  "own everyone's Private Parts".

Government is forced to tax from reluctant citizens (like you), and/or borrow from private financiers.   

freediver wrote on Jun 7^th, 2022 at 4:12pm:



You should have stopped there.

No one has said that the govt. should "run everything".

Essential services like electricity, water & public transport should be in govt hands.

Greedy corporations should have no hand in it.

And as has been stated before by many here .....

there has not been one former govt owned public utility state or Federal that has been privatised that has resulted in lower prices for consumers.

Your competition theory is full of holes.

It's more like price fixing collusion that has occurred .... on the way up.

freediver wrote on Jun 7^th, 2022 at 7:48pm:


Essential services like electricity, energy, roads, health, and education  are best provided by government monopolies, (aka 'natural monopolies') to avoid profit gouging by private companies, leading to market failure (which we are currently seeing with the Oz gas market).   

On the other hand, food and house producers face competition in local markets which restricts monopolization and price gouging, hence private sector  market efficiencies will operate as intended.   

So we can differentiate between 'essential services', on the basis of ability to monopolize the market, or the existence of a natural monopoly (eg the NBN) , to determine which services should be in government hands.