Big Business and Bad Government The Victorian State Government in Australia has been pushing the inadequately

justified $15 billion East West Link road tunnel project in inner Melbourne at the expense of far more worthy projects. In many cases such projects are urgently needed in particular with regard to public transport and growing outer suburbs. Why is this happening when it is also likely to be at the expense of a substantial proportion of those who voted for this Government? This paper aims to show that the road tunnel project here is mainly being driven by profitseeking big business. There is an examination of how big business influences and controls governments with great success. This influencing and controlling is occurring on an increasingly wide scale and is especially bad in the U.S. The U.S. experience raises the possibility of ominous economic and social consequences for Australia and the rest of the world. The Victorian Government has been appointing very senior managers to the State public service from private enterprise. Presumably this is occurring with the assumption that it will lead to cost savings from a more efficient business-like approach. This has been happening in the U.S.A. for a long time. Here, for example, senior government finance positions are occupied by managers moving from and back to large financial corporations. It is likely that a number of senior management positions in the State Government transport authorities are occupied by similarly appointed people from large road developer corporations. Jeremy Leggett writes of a similar situation in the UK1. He has tried with limited success to promote renewable industries such as solar power. A major problem has been the big established energy firms embedding full-time employees in government departments free of charge and working as civil servants. The traffic was in information, as well as lobbyists disguised as officials. (p. 151.) This has led to a draft UK electricity market reform bill that Jeremy describes as a crib sheet from the nuclear and gas industries wish lists (p. 152). By the way, Jeremy makes a powerful case for the world being hit by peak oil as early as 2015 if another global financial crisis does not hit first. Peak oil will lead to a crippling rise in oil prices which will no doubt substantially reduce vehicle use and road congestion. It will also substantially increase the need for public transport. (The consequences of peak oil are much more wide-ranging than this e.g. the need to consider distance from the nearest supermarket, supermarket difficulties acquiring products to sell and the increased need to purchase locallygrown food.2) Jeremy is well aware of the unjustified claims about shale gas and oil. He also mentions key figures in government and energy firms either lying or being in a state of denial about peak oil.
1

Jeremy Leggett, The Energy of Nations Risk Blindness and the Road to Renaissance, Routledge, London, 2014. This book is introduced by its author in a New Scientist article of 2 November 2013 which is reproduced at website http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029415.700-an-oil-crash-is-on-its-way-and-we-shouldbe-ready.html?full=true#.UrSNTOIimX0 2 Such consequences are covered in the book Life Without Oil (2011) by Steve Hallett and John Wright introduced at website http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/society-and-culture/a-world-without-oil-its-closer-than-you-think-20110426-1dv1d.html

In early December 2013 the Australian Prime minister, Tony Abbott, spoke to the Business Councils 30th anniversary dinner and was quoted as saying: ''My business - the business of government - should be making it easier for you to do your business because government doesn't create prosperity, business does. ''Governments' job is to make it easier for good businesses to do their best that's why almost everything we've done over the past three months has been to make it easier for Australians to do business.''3 This speech is no doubt related to recent pro-business and Federal government-related announcements e.g. the Fringe Benefits Tax crackdown on cars has been abandoned the crackdown on profit-shifting by banks and trans-national corporations has been reduced sale of Medibank Private is under consideration mining taxes are to be repealed (together with cutting of the Schoolkids Bonus) free trade agreements with other countries to include provision for an investor-state dispute settlement(ISDS) which allow foreign corporations to take legal action against the Australian government for adversely affecting their profit stream (the former Labor government banned ISDS provisions) polluting corporations are to be allowed to cause damaging and costly pollution at no cost to the polluting corporations (electricity prices will not be decreasing) poker machine laws are being repealed e.g. repealing of 1) cost warnings required to be displayed on poker machines, 2) $250-a-day cap on automatic teller machine withdrawals in gaming venues amendments to water down Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) legislation in order to save the financial services industry millions of dollars in implementation and annual compliance costs according to Assistant Treasurer, Arthur Sinodinos.4 The original objectives of FOFA were to improve the trust and confidence of Australian retail investors in the financial services sector and improve access to advice.5 the new Federal Government is aiming to speed up broadband development by replacing fibre-to-the-premises technology with less advanced copper-based broadband technologies; this is likely to boost short term profits for big business in the near future agitation to defund the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) so that people can be further deprived of truthful and useful information. These examples are supposedly aimed to assist big business to succeed more and to create more wealth and employment. The examples here are typical of the measures to further enrich the rich which have been happening for some time in the U.S. and which are

See Ross Gittins article in The Age at website http://www.theage.com.au/comment/transpacific-partnershipwith-us-should-hold-fears-20131210-2z416.html 4 Assistant Treasurer statement at website http://axs.ministers.treasury.gov.au/media-release/011-2013/ 5 Treasury website http://futureofadvice.treasury.gov.au/content/Content.aspx?doc=home.htm

scathingly documented by writer David Sirota.6 David provides considerable evidence of bribe inspired tax breaks and legislation changes for the rich combined with harsh outcomes for the middle class and poor less government spending on health care, welfare, lowincome housing and inner-city schools; a minimal wage below the poverty line; weakened bankruptcy protection laws; credit card corporations behaving unethically and deceptively; people impoverished by catastrophic medical bills; pensions cut or terminated; thousands of U.S. deaths each year because people cant afford health insurance; citizens unable to afford excessively high prices for medical drugs; weakening of worker unions that are out to stop low wages, bad benefits and poor working conditions; reduced legal rights for people harmed by corporations. The U.S. health insurance industry is especially exposed for bribing to stop government funded health services that might reduce its profits. Attention is given to corrupting and price-gouging energy corporations getting governments to accept their denial of peak-oil so that there is no need for improved fuel efficiency or for alternative energy. All of this is occurring on a huge scale with disastrous consequences for the U.S. Widespread and costly corporate destruction seems to be happening with minimal public awareness. Awareness-raising could result in job dismissal for most social commentators, journalists, academics, economists, government employees and senior corporate managers. Senior members of major political parties are likely to be so deeply immersed in cooperation with corporations that the possibility of wrong-doing may not occur to many of them. Members of major political parties are likely to be ignored or expelled if they become too antagonistic towards corporations. The question arises as to how governments are influenced by big business. There is an organisation in the U.S. named the Centre for responsive Economics7 which is a non-profit, non-partisan research group that tracks the effects of money and lobbying on elections and public policy. This organisation offers information on which public relations firms have signed up former White House employees, which lobbyists have brought their interests with them to the powerful appropriations committees, which interests are employing former members of Congress to lobby on their behalf...and much more.8 Industrial sectors are ranked according to how much money they give to the Democrats and the Republicans with the top 12 ranging from around $18 million up to about $109 million so far for 2013-2014; ranking at number 12 is Transportation.9 On 27 January 2014 the journalist Heath Aston provided a glimpse of Coalition-aligned influence pedlers being recruited since the Federal election of 2013 by large lobby companies.10 This has meant jobs for former Howard government ministers, retired Coalition MPs and Liberal Party operatives. A number of large corporations are listed as clients of
6

David Sirota, Hostile Takeover How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government and How We Take It Back, Three Rivers Press, New York, 2007. See also the Jeffrey D. Clements book Corporations Are Not People (2012) which shows how big business furthers its cause by undermining the U.S. legal system. 7 See website http://www.opensecrets.org/ 8 See website http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/ 9 See website http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/ 10 See website http://www.queanbeyanage.com.au/story/2047818/former-coalition-figures-in-demand-bylobbying-industry/

these large lobby companies. At least two very senior and influential members of the Liberal Party have been able to present themselves as special advisers which has enabled them to avoid being listed on the official register of lobbyists. Heath Aston notes that there are companies which switch lobby groups according to which side of politics is in the ascendancy. What governments and their voters fail to realise is that the main aim of business corporations is to maximise money profits even if they reduce wealth and well-being for most of the population. This reduced wealth and well-being may show up in the form of bankruptcy, dispossession of housing, ill health including mental illness, gambling problems and increases in family violence. In recent times a great deal of corporate profit maximisation has been achieved with greedy and unproductive speculative investment with major contributions from the big financial corporations. Corporations are succeeding in getting governments to reduce their taxes and deregulate them with inevitable adverse consequences for the economy. Why reduce taxes here? Australia has one of the lowest tax burdens of the OECD countries an annual average of 27.9% of GDP for 2006-2010 compared to 36.3%for Germany and 46.9% for Sweden.11 And Australia needs a lot more government revenue to fund many more full-time secure jobs, proper community services and city infrastructure and to tackle the problem of climate change. There is the questionable notion that reducing taxes allows the economy to grow faster. The U.S. economy grew faster in the three decades after World War II than it has grown since top income tax rates were slashed in 1981from much higher levels.12 In the US income inequality took off in the 1970s. This resulted in the very wealthy becoming increasingly attracted to unproductive speculative financial investments as a consequence of diminishing opportunities for investment in new productive enterprises. The finance industry was thus encouraged to offer new investments e.g. in the form of collateral debt obligations (CDOs) which are artificial securities based on pools of similar loans with each CDO a part of such a pool. CDOs were not widely understood but offered high rates of return, apparently at minimal risk on account of high ratings from the credit rating agencies. This created a world of casino finance that was extremely profitable for the financial firms. According to Les Leopold13 When the housing bubble burst, the entire fantasy-finance edifice that had been built upon it collapsed as well. Investors and banks all over the globe were loaded with toxic derivatives based on risky mortgages that had crashed in value. The risk supposedly had been engineered out of these derivatives, but it hadnt. Many financial institutions central to the economy became insolvent or nearly so. The banking system froze. The stock market crashed. The global economy tanked. A December 2013 article in Time magazine argues that U.S. banks are not safe enough. It claims the biggest banks are even bigger than they were before the crisis: the eight largest
11 12

Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks, The Trouble with Billionaires, Oneworld Publications, L ondon, 2013, p. 62. See Robert Reich article in 2012 at website http://robertreich.org/post/21157770369 13 Les Leopold, The Looting of America: How Wall Streets Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Vermont, 2009, p. 179.

financial institutions in the U.S. control nearly $15 trillion worth of assets, or about 90% of GDP. A major reason for this situation is attributed to lobbying power which has been used to undermine legislation aimed at controlling the banks.14 The Australian economy is vulnerable in a number of areas. The rich getting richer, at the expense of the middle class and the poor, means a widening gap in income distribution. In 1981-82 the share of taxable income for the top 1% of income earners was 4.6%; in 2009-10 their share of all income was 8.9%.15 Surely this trend cannot continue indefinitely. Already businesses are increasingly losing customers or closing because the latter cannot afford to spend; businesses such as cinemas, retail stores selling books (Borders, Angus and Robertson), DVDs (Sanity and Virgin) and clothing (Fletcher Jones). Reduced retail sales are related to reduced advertising which is adversely affecting newspaper profits and television entertainment content. Television is continually looking for cheaper forms of entertainment such as reality shows and amateur talent contests allowing lots of time for judge opinions. The expansion of Australian tertiary institutions without the necessary extra funding has made education increasingly expensive for tertiary students while adversely affecting the recruiting and retaining of quality teaching staff. Housing prices in Australia are becoming increasingly unaffordable. In 2013 the median price of a Melbourne house at $481,000 was 71/2 times median annual household income compared to a median priced Melbourne house costing about 3 times median annual income 50 years ago i.e. houses are 21/2 times more costly than they were in 1964, relative to income.16 A 2012 Housing Affordability Survey found that housing unaffordability had risen sharply in Australia in the previous decade. In 2012 all major metropolitan markets in Australia were severely unaffordable, reflecting vastly overpriced housing.17 John Maudin and Jonathan Tepper have written Australia is a house of cards. We are confident the [housing] bubble will burst and that it will be spectacular.18 The Melbourne East West Link project makes a lot of sense in terms of lobby groups for one or more rich and powerful road developers. This kind of greedy, predatory and destructive capitalism is very much on the increase and is forcefully explained in a book by John McMurtry.19 The following text is taken from a website summarising the first edition of this book:20
14

Article Banks arent safe enough by Rana Foroohar on page 13 of Time magazine of 30 December 2013 see website http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2160950,00.html 15 See Tim Colebatch article in The Sydney Morning Herald at website http://www.smh.com.au/executivestyle/the-rich-getting-richer--again-20120710-21u49.html 16 See January 2014 article House prices near record by Nick Toscano, Adam Carey and Craig Butt in The Age at website http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/house-prices-near-record-20140102-3080j.html 17 th 9 Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2013. See website http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf, p.9 & p.12. 18 John Mauldin & Jonathan Tepper, Endgame, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 2011, p. 279. 19 John McMurtry, "The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: From Crisis to Cure", second edition, Pluto Press, London, 2013. See website http://www.amazon.com/Cancer-Stage-Capitalism-John-McMurtry/dp/0745313523. 20 See website http://politicsofhealth.org/content-access/editorials/groundbreaking-articles/205-the-cancerstage-of-capitalism

The real incomes of most of society's members have declined across the world. With revenue increasingly flowing to private money-capital investors, the means of life that remain have become ever more endangered and insecure. John McMurtry is especially concerned with the increasingly widespread and pointless pursuit for money as an end in itself rather than to achieve something that is real and productive. John writes In no society in the world have transnational market reforms reduced rates of poverty or child malnutrition and starvation. In no country where they have been imposed have they increased public access to health and educational resources, provided workers with more job-security or benefits, or protected the air, water, coastal land, and soil quality of the planet more effectively. They have done the opposite everywhere (pp. 193194). The following statement has probably been influenced by John McMurtry's thinking. "We must distinguish between free market capitalism and crony capitalism. The latter relies on political crooks that should face jail time. One builds the country, the other consumes it. One builds [for] everybody, the other simply transfers wealth from the poor to the rich."21 Big businesses have put a lot of effort and money into trying to achieve intellectual respectability for predatory capitalism. They have found supporting academics whose work dates back to the 1930s in the case of Austrian Friedrich von Hayeck of the London School of Economics and to the 1940s for Milton Friedman of the University of Chicago. Such academics oppose Keynesian economics, the welfare state, industrial nationalizations and the power of trade unions; they support pro-market economic liberalism, advancing free-market economics, and monetarism with priority to control inflation over maintaining employment. Academic research organizations (free market think-tanks) have been created by big business to supply and influence tertiary institutions and the media with authoritative studies on the practical uses of market theory. Such organizations apparently include the Centre for Independent Studies in Australia.22 Theoretical support for modern day uncontrolled capitalism is regularly linked to the philosophy of Russian-born Ayn Rand (1905-1982) whose books include Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1946) and The Virtue of Selfishness (1961). She developed a philosophy of objectivism which holds that individual self-achievement is more important than tradition or altruism, a theory that is closely tied to laissez-faire capitalism.23 Ayn Rand was strongly against any government control over capitalist enterprises. Her supporters include Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of the U.S. from 1987 to 2006, and widely regarded as a major contributor to the global financial crisis of 2008. In 2012 a video documentary was produced entitled Ayn Rand & The Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged which has major contributions from the Ayn Rand Institute and which refers heavily to Ayn Rands best-selling novel Atlas Shrugged (1957). Ayn Rand grew up in
21 22

See website http://moneyedpoliticians.net/2013/05/13/the-cancer-stage-of-capitalism. Linda McQuaig & Neil Brooks, The Trouble with Billionaires, Oneworld Publications, London, 2013, pp 119205. Also see website http://www.cis.org.au/ 23 See website http://www.biography.com/people/ayn-rand-9451526

Russia at a time when the harsh consequences of Stalinism became increasingly apparent. In America she came to believe that the worst aspects of Stalinism could result from a powerful U.S. government. The documentary shows her to be very much against government regulations; it even claims the 2008 global financial crisis was mainly caused by excessive government regulations. Brief mention is made of the adverse consequences of government combining with big business, in particular the U.S. military industrial complex. But the documentary appears totally oblivious to the possibility that small entrepreneurial businesses can be hurt by regulations from governments under the control and influence of big businesses out to stifle competition. The danger here is not Stalinism but big business totalitarianism. Support for Ayn Rand is more difficult to find in well-regarded academic circles. Corporate influence on governments has been increasing since the 1970s, especially in the U.S.A., to the point that governments and big business are extremely and destructively intertwined. This intertwining is behind the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, subsequent major economic disasters throughout the world and the likely repeat of 2008 which will be much harder to survive. Attempts to disguise corruption often take the form of free markets, free trade and free trade agreements. Useful introductions to this state of affairs may be found in recent American documentary films such as American Empire: An Act of Collective Madness (2013)24 The website for this documentary states Beginning with the founding of the Federal Reserve, a private banking cartel that controls debt and inflation, an economic empire has been created that is dedicated to destroying our planet and all its natural resources in an effort to amass money. Hence a world where agribusiness food is produced to maximize profit while causing major health problems because of pesticides, genetically modified food plants and lack of nutrition. The U.S. medical industry is geared more to profit than health. The U.S. financial industry is directed towards people who acquire great amounts of money from non-productive investment in a way that financially disadvantages the middle class and the poor. Wall Street is a major contributor to this situation. The film features a number of social commentators expressing concern about the merger of commercial and political interests and the merger of State and corporate powers. Money and Life (2013)25 This film questions the current attitude to money, especially in terms of consumption, debt and money profits as an end in itself. A statement is made that Over time money took over, not as a means but as a measure of wealth. Alternative ways of measuring wealth are suggested e.g. childrens health, strong communities, a healthy/non-toxic natural environment, harmonious human relationships.

24

I was able to download this film using iTunes. A trailer for this film may be found at website http://www.coveringmedia.com/movie/2012/12/american-empire.html. The film is much more oriented to information than entertainment but is still very interesting to watch. 25 A trailer for this film may be found at website http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/money-and-lifedocumentary. I ordered the DVD for this film from website http://moneyandlifemovie.com/shop/product/details/292/money-amp-life-dvd.

Both of the above films feature authors who provide more details in their books (n.b. authors David C. Korten26 and Vandana Shiva27). Other important film documentaries (which are described at the IMDB website www.imdb.com) include The Corporation (2003) Kenneth Chisholm (kchisol@rogers.com and IMDB) has written Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also [what] the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it. The cover for the accompanying book with the same title (by Joel Bakan) includes the statement The most powerful class of institution on earth, the corporation, is by any reasonable measure hopelessly and unavoidably demented. The corporation lies, steals and kills without hesitation when it serves the interests of the shareholders to do so. It obeys the law only when the costs of crime exceed the profits. Corporate social responsibility is impossible except in so far as it is insincere. Inside Job (2010) The IMDB storyline states 'Inside Job' provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. In the press kit for the movie, the director wrote This film attempts to provide a comprehensive portrayal of the worst financial crisis since the Depression, which continues to haunt us via Europes debt problems and global financial instability. It was a completely avoidable crisis; indeed for 40 years after the reforms following the Great Depression, the United States did not have a single financial crisis. However, the progressive deregulation of the financial sector since the 1980s gave rise to an increasingly
26

I would especially recommend David Kortens Agenda for a New Economy: from Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, second edition, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, 2010. David has a website at http://davidkorten.org/. An introduction to David Korten may be found at http://davidkorten.org/MediaInterview. More details of this book appear at website http://davidkorten.org/agenda2. How David Korten sees the U.S. government being overwhelmed by corporations may be found at website http://davidkorten.org/presidential-address. 27 Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, South End Press, Cambridge, MA, 2000.

criminal industry, whose innovations have produced a succession of financial crises. Each crisis has been worse than the last; and yet, due to the industrys increasing wealth and power, each crisis has seen few people go to prison. In the case of this crisis, nobody has gone to prison, despite fraud that caused trillions of dollars in losses. Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) This satirical film by Michel Moore examines the social costs of corporate interests pursuing profits at the expense of the public good (IMDB). It sets out to bring shame to the greedy and focuses on the U.S. spinning into anarchy, with indolent, right-winged, self-seeking politicians forming an unhealthy nexus with Corporations, and Wall Street, leaving the vulnerable without employment and health insurance, while putting billions at the disposal of banks and insurance companies - leaving them free to distribute this wealth amongst their executives without any conditions and audits (IMDB summary by rAjOo). Capitalism is the Crisis: Radical Politics in the Age of Austerity (2011)28 The following statements are made at the beginning of this film: corporate entities are more powerful than the governments they control [they] are impervious to the will of the citizenry. They have carried out a coup detat. They have won. We have lost. We live in a culture that is so utterly awash in lies and propaganda as to create a kind of collective hypnosis or self-delusion where you have people clamouring for their own enslavement. This film is not for sale. It is to share. It provides lots of information on how non-democratic governments controlled by corporations are using austerity measures to reduce wages, welfare spending, pensions, government employment and union influence. It draws attention to increasing inequality of wealth in the U.S. recently at a similar level to that of Egypt and Chile. Homelessness and the proportion of homes unoccupied in the U.S. have risen to disturbing levels. Some of the solutions suggested here to deal with this are quite radical and sometimes even anarchistic. Hopefully at least one of the major political parties in Australia will find a way to control corporations so that such solutions do not have to be seriously considered by Australians. Shadows of Liberty (2012)29. As indicated on the accompanying DVD cover, this film journeys through the American media landscape, where global media conglomerates exercise extraordinary political, social and economic power. The overwhelming collective power of these firms raises troubling questions about democracy [the film shows journalists being] prevented from pursuing controversial news stories, people censored for speaking out against abuses of government power. The film expresses concern about the media monopolies strangle hold on information. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch features prominently in this film which points out that five corporations own and control almost all media in the U.S. Other points raised include media corporations are driven by profit, not the public good; U.S. corporate journalism promotes official government sources and corporate agendas.

28 29

See website http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/capitalism-is-the-crisis/ A trailer for Shadows of Liberty may be found at website http://shadowsofliberty.org/the-film

The Australian print media is largely controlled by Rupert Murdoch whose newspapers are inclined to ignore or distort the truth where it will help the interests of big business; some of the disinformation in his papers comes from contrarian conservative journalists out to deny climate change and to support predatory capitalism in the cause of free speech sometimes adopting a bogan approach to bolster their anti-intellectualism. Television news is less and less inclined to cover events that are important to know about so that an informed democracy can function. Instead, coverage leans much more towards crimes, car crashes, house fires, accidents and assaults (especially when recorded by security cameras), celebrity indiscretions, British royalty non-events, empty opinions from unqualified blusterers, conservative politicians trashing the Australian Labor Party, viral YouTube videos, cute animal stories and the latest stock market figures. Trying to bring big business and predatory capitalism under control is a huge challenge. Doing so may help achieve a more enlightened approach to transport management in Melbourne. Suggestions by David Korten30 are worth considering i.e. Free both the market and democracy from corporate domination by breaking up concentrations of economic power, getting big money out of politics, making corporations pay their own way, and [in the case of the U.S.A.] preserving Bill of Rights protections for people. (p. 178) levying a progressive tax on corporate profits and assets to create an incentive to voluntarily break up monopolistic concentrations of corporate power; eliminating public subsidies for private-benefit corporations; establishing rules to assure that corporations bear the full social and environmental costs of their operations and imposing fees on those that do not; and requiring that all corporate charters clearly specify the public purpose the corporation is chartered to serve and revoking the charters of corporations that do not comply. (pp. 180-181) John McMurtry31 adopts a similar approach with the following suggestions: (1) higher taxes and disincentives for the very rich opposite to the neo-liberal de-taxation of the corporate rich impoverishing government and public life-support systems; (2) aggressive national recovery of control over publicly owned resources oil reserves, forests and minerals by multiplied royalties/fees for extraction by private corporations; (3) public banking and investment to support the real economy of productive and cooperative investments the public banking that the US, its satellites and the EU are politically and ideologically paralysed from undertaking within the Wall Street-led financial system as it bleeds them dry (and incapable of keeping up with Japan and China with no vast such revenue wastes); (4) policy-led elimination of structural depredation of the poor and the environment as the essential turning point of government enabled by (1), (2) and (3) in Latin America more than halving poverty within a decade by escalated minimum wages, guaranteed incomes to mothers, and co-operative multiplying productive jobs.
30 31

David Korten, Agenda for a New Economy: from Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, second edition, 2010. John McMurtry, The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: From Crisis to Cure, second edition, Pluto Press, London, 2013, p.261.

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Les Leopold32 especially focuses on suggestions for controlling the big financial corporations who work with a money-making-money approach. An insurance system is needed for protection against the collapse of massive unproductive speculative investment that threatens severe economic downturn. The financial institutions, not the taxpayers, should be paying the properly administered insurance premiums. Les Leopold suggests collecting a 3/10 of one percent insurance premium on the face value of each and every transaction (with no exceptions). These funds should be used to help rebuild the economy (as in infrastructure, renewable energy, science, health care and education), not for bailouts. This proposal will work best as a global insurance program.33 Safeguards are required for financial product innovations. Risky financial products should not be allowed to be sold as if their risk was minimal. Les Leopold proposes an international body to approve and certify financial innovations at least with regard to selling to public agencies involved with public funds, pension funds and endowments.34 Les Leopold expresses concern about the increasing redistribution of income that enables sky-high salaries for financial CEOs. He believes the wage gap needs to be narrowed. He writes If real wages rise, workers will spend more money in the real economy and the superrich will have less money to spend on speculative investments. With more money in their pockets, workers will increase the demand for goods and services, and fewer of them will default on their mortgages.35 Some of the suggestions raised above about uncontrolled and undemocratic capitalism may need to be modified to suit the situation in Australia. Neglecting the increasing power and influence of corporations will have dire consequences for Australia and elsewhere. The combination of big greedy corporations, political corruption and media disinformation appears extremely out of control in the U.S. and worldwide is leading towards one or more of the following tipping points reached for a global climate catastrophe36, a global financial crisis too big for governments faced with massive unpayable debts and/or the bursting of price bubbles caused by unproductive speculative investment, a peak oil crisis making it too expensive and/or too difficult for too many essential businesses to function, one or more of the above crises plus a worldwide food shortage crisis where unsustainable agribusiness mismanagement is one of the major contributing factors.37
32

Les Leopold, The Looting of America: How Wall Streets Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our J obs, Pensions and Prosperity, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Vermont, 2009. 33 Ibid., pp.157-159. 34 Ibid., pp. 162-163. 35 Ibid., pp. 179-180. 36 See Fred Pearce book With Speed and Violence Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change, Beacon Press, Boston, 2007. 37 A possible food crisis is discussed extensively in the Julian Cribb book The Coming Famine The Global Food Crisis And What We Can Do To Avoid It, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 2010.

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Such developments are already close to an irreversible level; developments which are far too likely to bring about worldwide economic and social collapse that may be beyond surviving. The inadequately justified and hugely expensive Melbourne East West Link road tunnel project is a relatively minor aspect of the world corporation scene outlined above. But it is still of immense importance to those living in the state of Victoria. Inappropriate corporate influences on this project must be overcome and the project must be stopped. If this happens there may be some hope in Australia for a functioning democracy and a program that can overcome damaging corporate influences. Tony Francis 31 January 2014

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