- JOHNNY SMOOTHIE -

Back on 3rd March 2001 (just after the Petrol tax was reduced) SPIN was of the opinion that Prime Minister Johnny Howard would have to repeal the GST and make peace with Pauline Hanson if he wished to remain in power.

On 18th May SPIN tacitly recognized that tax reductions offered were a substantial substitution for a repeal, but still believed that Pauline Hanson must be brought in from the cold.  So what did smooth Johnny do?

When the Tampa fuse ignited, he connected & it exploded.   In so doing he stole Pauline's thunder. His racist credentials are now indistinguishable from hers.

Of course that solution has it's own risks and benefits.

The benefit is - well Pauline has created a certain negative personal impact, and compromise with her would mean absorbing a portion of that negative image.  The risk?  Pauline remains as a political ghost & a loose cannon, and will be a magnet for all of those Australians who are disaffected with the two main political parties.  The politically disaffected will vote for anybody who might create a third major party. (There are no other candidates.  Stott Despoja & Bob Brown have a small party image that they seem unable to dispel).

The number of politically disillusioned voters in Australia is growing at an exponential rate (albeit from a tiny base).

In the aftermath of the Tampa incident (following the WA & NT disasters) Johnny Smoothie must truly appear to Australian politicians to be "The Wizard of OZ".  But the polls are showing a very ephemeral state of the electorate.

If the Tampa incident was a calculated strategic victory with the aim of perhaps strengthening his hand in negotiations with Pauline, then SPIN believes that we will see the Howard Government last another term (after he has assured us that he will not retire).

But Tampa has not healed the festering disillusionment of the electorate.

1. For a substantial number of conservative voters, gun controls are a black mark for Johnny.
2. The GST is a lingering stink, especially for small businessmen and farmers.
3. Johnny's racist credentials are now impeccable.

- THE WEALTH OF NATIONS -

Possibilities that have been considered include:

1. Abundance of Natural Resources.
2. Hard working people.
3. Political system.
4. Conspiracy theories.
5. Favored by a deity.

2.  Being hard working is an old favorite, but probably not a complete answer.  There may be reason to believe that the Chinese in Hong Kong or Singapore are more hard working than those in China, or that the people of England are lazier than their American cousins, but that alone does not explain the continuing disparity between the growth of wealth in those nations.

3.  Having the correct political system does seem to be in large measure the reason.  Some systems seem to encourage state sponsored bribery more readily than do others.  Hence the most liberal political systems seem to engender the wealthiest populations.  So Iceland & Switzerland, countries with liberal government & few natural resources have on the average got wealthier citizens than countries like Australia which has far greater natural resources but a much less liberal political system.  Or the USA with three tiers of government and three heads of power does well in comparison to the UK which has only one tier of government and two heads of power (an executive & legislative parliament & a Judicial, the monarchy as an executive has atrophied almost completely).

4.  Conspiracy theories generally credit foreign governments with exploitation of the wealth of a particular country to enrich their own country.  Undoubtedly events do occur, as for instance the breakup of the nation of Columbia to produce the state of Panama.  More often it is probably a large corporation generating profits by bribery and corruption of the national interests as instanced by Cuba.  Even the Canadians object to capital inflows that smother local industries.  Most of these theories are due to the naiveté of the orator.  Such behavior happens continually in the dog-eat-dog competition within the USA.  When these practices are exported, it is not dirty tricks.  It is business as usual.  This is demonstrated by the occasional overseas entrepreneur who successfully invades a corner of a market in the USA, as did for instance Rupert Murdoch.

5. Being favored by a deity for being godly, (or to put it as an agnostic might, the change in circumstances that results from adopting the beliefs promulgated by a particular religion) could increase the prosperity of a society.   If such were so:

• The deity most effective at promoting the wealth of it's people seems to be the Protestant god as exemplified in the USA.
• A close runner up must be the Roman Catholic God in the USA and Europe.
• The religion in Japan (about which SPIN is uninformed, is it Shinto or Buddhist?) must be considered efficacious.
• The Roman Catholic god worshipped in Latin America does not appear to be very helpful.
• The Taoist (or is that Communist?) religion in China does not seem particularly helpful to the Chinese in China.
• It must be noted that the schism that created the Greco-Russian orthodoxy apparently had only limited divine approval.
• The Buddhist approach in India does seem to be taking a too transcendental approach to material concerns.
• People who live in countries where the Muslim religion is dominant do not anywhere in the world do well except where enormous natural resources exist.
• The animist gods of Africa do not seem to care very much about their people's well being.

SPIN ARCHIVES.

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