"Above all, the Commonwealth [national] government [before the resurgence of neoliberalsim] had confidence in its own capacity, employing the best and brightest graduates of the universities that had expanded massively thanks to Commonwealth funding beginning in the 1960s. The Commonwealth government saw itself as both more competent and less subject to interest group pressure than the states. Under both conservative and Labor governments, the Commonwealth had steadily expanded the scope and scale of its operations, reducing the roles of both state governments and the business sector.
The Commonwealth government of those times would have been far better equipped to deal with a pandemic, and would have seen itself as having the obvious responsibility to do so."
"The coining of names for theoretical entities is a serious matter." Couldn't agree more -- for example "cybernetics" conjures up visions of guys in turtlenecks with puffy 70s hair talking about, I don't know, prog rock.
"The example that sticks in my mind is that of the BBC Micro; in 1982 it would have been a default presumption on the part of the British middle class that “mere private enterprise can’t possibly produce a home computer that’s going to be as good as the state broadcaster”."
And then the British Middle Class saw the price of the bloody things.
Well, that's my pretensions truly skewered. What about VIC-20s?
Slightly more seriously - "mere private enterprise..." - I'm not really convinced that the statement is that accurate. 'twas a funny old time, what with being young and all that.
I didn't think of a good name, but this piece is all about the effects of lost mojo on our response to Covid
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2021/september/1630418400/john-quiggin/dismembering-government.
Key quote
"Above all, the Commonwealth [national] government [before the resurgence of neoliberalsim] had confidence in its own capacity, employing the best and brightest graduates of the universities that had expanded massively thanks to Commonwealth funding beginning in the 1960s. The Commonwealth government saw itself as both more competent and less subject to interest group pressure than the states. Under both conservative and Labor governments, the Commonwealth had steadily expanded the scope and scale of its operations, reducing the roles of both state governments and the business sector.
The Commonwealth government of those times would have been far better equipped to deal with a pandemic, and would have seen itself as having the obvious responsibility to do so."
"The coining of names for theoretical entities is a serious matter." Couldn't agree more -- for example "cybernetics" conjures up visions of guys in turtlenecks with puffy 70s hair talking about, I don't know, prog rock.
readers of my book will never know how many greek and Latin derived neologisms I am protecting them from
"The example that sticks in my mind is that of the BBC Micro; in 1982 it would have been a default presumption on the part of the British middle class that “mere private enterprise can’t possibly produce a home computer that’s going to be as good as the state broadcaster”."
And then the British Middle Class saw the price of the bloody things.
this was the definition of being middle class! if you had a spectrum, you are officially allowed to claim that you were working class
Well, that's my pretensions truly skewered. What about VIC-20s?
Slightly more seriously - "mere private enterprise..." - I'm not really convinced that the statement is that accurate. 'twas a funny old time, what with being young and all that.