The great lesson from the collapse of communism is that complex modern societies can't be governed according to a single principle. The capitalist-socialist hybrid is messy, but it has proved durable because it reflects the two drivers of human economic behaviour, competition and co-operation. We don't need to invent a new guiding principle. We do need to rethink the role of the state in light of the fundamental changes in our society over recent decades. Mark Bahnisch of Larvatus Prodeo knows how to stir Chris Sheil and Jason Soon ;-) Reinventing Government and The Third Way
Eye on Politics & Taxes: Melting Pot's chance
The anti-Muslim sentiment voiced in recent months echoes the rhetoric of an earlier time, writes Emily Maguire.
Responding to Peter Costello's recent comments about Muslims in Australia, the Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, accused the federal Treasurer of "trying to appeal back to the 1950s". Beattie would have been just as correct if he'd said the 185. This month, 155 years ago, a group of Chinese immigrants working at Long Pocket, near Ipswich, were attacked by their white co-workers.
• When leaders stoop to politics of fear [Like those old jokes about Chinese food never quite being enough so you have to keep going back and having another helping, tax reform always seems to offer more political benefit than it ever manages to deliver. And once one round of reform is completed, it's not long before someone somewhere is calling for more and that single voice eventually becomes a chorus. The Howard Government, despite its reformist credentials, has tended to shy away from taxation reform. Few would argue that the current system is a model of fairness and equity, or that reform would not yield substantial economic benefit for all Australians. Equity and reward must be the goals in tax reform; The High Court ruled today that property and shares made available to the wife of a barrister who did not pay tax for almost 40 years should be made available to trustees acting for his creditors High Court rules against tax-dodge lawyer ]
• · Taking corporate social responsibility seriously Is CSR A-OK? ; Althusser and Foucault on Machiavelli's Political Technique. If the beatific smile of a child signals innocent sincerity, adult life is cloaked with masks and disguises. It cannot be a Real Person, a Concrete Individual ; Newly retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor took on conservative Republican critics of the courts in a speech Thursday. She told an audience at Georgetown University that Republican proposals, and their sometimes uncivil tone, pose a danger to the independence of the judiciary, and the freedoms of all Americans O'Connor Decries Republican Attacks on Courts
• · · Democracy & political naiveté,; We've smashed the Cambodian stack, the Vietnamese and the Latin American stack Triumphant Crean challenges Beazley over factions ; All I can see is risks, the risk that selecting a person from a particular faction or indeed sub-faction or fraction is more important than getting the best possible candidate Cut factions' power, Gillard urges
• · · · Richard Pratt and Bob Carr have known each other for many years - Visy Carr in advisory role to packaging giant ; Local companies are developing intrapreneurship programs to cultivate corporate leaders and drive innovation The way up: kissing up - kicking down
• · · · · ANAO report said that the ATO has appropriate strategies to address targeted elements of the cash economy. Its strategic directions are risk-based, follow the expert advice of the Cash Economy Taskforce and are consistent with overseas approaches ANAO audit report on ATO's strategies to address the cash economy ; Australia's income tax law, now almost a century old, may be many hundreds of times thicker than it was when adopted in 1915, but it is difficult to argue that it is much better. What can be argued is that it represents little more than a collection of ad hoc, complex and knee-jerk political responses to nine decades of unresolved problems... Success and Challenges of Online Tax Filings Examined by Policy Expert In general, citizen satisfaction levels with online filing have been quite high. The Case of Online Tax Filing ;
• · · · · · Asteron general manager sales and distribution Peter Jowett says advisers using Wealthstar will benefit from a single application form for both personal super and life insurance. Asteron takes risk in new platform ; What if there were a funeral for Asteron and nobody came? ; Kosmix a new search engine for Health, Politics, Travel