James Valentine did a great interview this morning with an industrial relations researcher (forgotten the…

James Valentine did a great interview this morning with an industrial relations researcher (forgotten the name, sorry). Before 7.30 if you want to re-listen. The points that I think are so vital right now: /1 #auspol

1) For NSW nurses to strike, something is seriously wrong in this State. NSW nurses are the least militant of Australian nurses, apparently. 2) What we're seeing was a long time building. The small government movement (what I call the libertarians/neoliberals). /2

3) The starving of public institutions, or dismantling entirely, and the legislated wage freezes decoupled from inflation and productivity, meant eventually the pressure cooker would burst. 4) Government keep kicking this can down the road, underfunding public services. /3

This to me is the real battleground, underneath everything else going in politics, the pandemic, climate change etc. Society is literally made of beliefs, and this one about government 'restricting' individual freedom has been dominant for decades. Its failure is what.../4

...we're living right now. 'Getting government out of peoples' lives' has been a disaster, and the true believers are clinging to that belief in open and flagrant opposition to the facts. /5

People invented government. People ARE government (who else occupies government positions?) Because they were sick of trying to stare down life's existential challenges alone. Economies of scale. Individualism, the 'market'...all a fantasy. Empirically shown, everywhere. /end