Opinions
Opinions
Why Modern Monetary Theory is good news for population policy
Stephen Williams, The Overpopulation Project, 14 May 2024
Why do governments pursue pronatalist policies and mass immigration in the face of majority voter opposition and the environmental crisis? The answer lies in blinkered, growthist economic ideologies linked to mainstream macroeconomics that predominantly benefit the rich and powerful.
https://overpopulation-project.com/why-modern-monetary-theory-is-good-news-for-population-policy/
Greens senators half right on housing
Stephen Williams, Tasmanian Times, 13 Jun 2023
Tasmanian Greens senators Nick McKim and Peter Whish-Wilson were correct to lambast federal Labor’s housing policy, especially the scheme of relying on some kind of investment fund (“It’s pretty simple … just build houses”, (The Mercury, 9 June, p37). A monetary sovereign like the Australian government does not need investment income from a fund to spend, prudently or otherwise, but nor does it necessarily need tax receipts or borrowings.
https://tasmaniantimes.com/2023/06/greens-senators-half-right-on-housing/
Economics: the top-10 mistakes
Stephen Williams, Pearls and Irritations, 20 Jan 2023
Richard Barnes laments the wilful blindness of many elites who go snow skiing while turning a blind eye to the causes of the high country’s dying landscape. Barnes says he mostly agrees with author Jeff Sparrow that the current economic system is to blame. Let me count the ways. This list of the top-10 errors of mainstream (neoclassical) economics will be controversial because there are way more than 10. But here goes.
Labor’s environmental denialism
Stephen Williams, Pearls and Irritations, 28 Dec 2022
Australians are getting a clearer idea of the Albanese government’s approach to the environmental crisis and it amounts to the maintenance of its long-held environmental denialism. Denialism is the rejection of strong evidence when it doesn’t suit your ideology or political agenda. Evidence has accumulated for at least 50 years that economic growth (GDP) and population growth are the main drivers of environmental decline. Neither are addressed in Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s recent announcements.
Change will not come by standing on the sidelines and shouting at the TV.