An interesting observation

[Diuretic]

Some folks might get some interest out of this. The journalist is very good, pretty dispassionate and objective in his writing and he knows his stuff.

I’VE been digging through some old university texts to unlock the mysteries of Australia’s egalitarian capitalism.

One colonial-era book grabbed my attention because it predicted about 60 per cent of what we are today.

The only big thing it got wrong was our obsession with property, which meant it misunderstood what ultimately makes this nation tick.


Put the clanger to one side for a moment and consider the six out of 10 things that this 1848 publication more or less nailed: a progressive income tax system (item two on the 10-point plan for the future); state control of credit via the Reserve Bank (point five); the dominance of Telstra (point six); John Howard’s mutual obligation and work for the dole (or, as point eight puts it, “equal obligation of all to work"); the urbanisation of the bush (point nine); and Kevin Rudd’s education stimulus revolution (point 10).

For those who haven’t guessed the title, it’s The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and, yes, some of its prophecies required a slight fiddle to fit with contemporary policies.

Meganomics Blog | The Australian