At the start of this century, US power was at its peak. Today it is weaker, the result of an imperial crisis in the Middle East, an economic crisis that crashed the world, the challenge from China and a political crisis that reflects and exacerbates these three trends.
The bosses are trying to convince workers that lower corporate taxes, fewer regulations and workers’ rights, and less union power would be good for real wages. What they really want is more profits.
The government’s talk of fairness and tackling inequality is empty noise. Yet in some ways, the budget is ambitious: it is characterised by an ambition to keep Australian capitalism’s winners rich and its losers poor.
