Newspoll: 51-49 to Coalition

A slight lead for the Coalition in the first results to emerge from a new-look Newspoll, which has dropped automated phone calls in favour of an exclusively online polling method.

Big news on the polling front as Newspoll unveils its first set of results based on what The Australian describes as “an improved methodology following an investigation into the failure of the major published polls”. The old series had been limping on post-election with results appearing every three weeks, but this latest result emerges only a fortnight after the last, presumably portending a return to the traditional fortnightly schedule.

The poll credits the Coalition with a two-party lead of 51-49, compared with 50-50 in the result a fortnight ago, from primary votes of Coalition 41% (up one), Labor 33% (down two), Greens 12% (steady) and One Nation 5% (down two). Interestingly, both leaders’ personal ratings are a lot worse than they were in the old series: Scott Morrison’s approval rating is at 43% (down three) with disapproval at 52% (up nine), while Anthony Albanese is at 38% approval (down four, though he was up five last time) and 42% disapproval (up five, though he was down seven last time). No news yet on preferred prime minister, which is presumably still a thing (UPDATE: Morrison’s lead narrows from 46-32 to 46-35).

On the methodological front, the poll has dropped robopolling and is now conducted entirely online. The sample size of 1519 is similar to before (slightly lower in fact), but the field work dates are now Thursday to Saturday rather than Thursday to Sunday. In a column for the newspaper, Campbell White of YouGov Asia-Pacific, which conducts the poll, offers the following on why robopolling has been abandoned:

A decade or so ago, most ­people had landlines and they tended to answer them. There was very little call screening. This meant getting a representative sample was easier and pollsters did not need to be so skilled in modelling and scaling their data. The truth is, the old days are never coming back. In order to do better, we need to consider what we can do differently. We’ve seen a consistent pattern overseas where telephone polling has become less accurate and online polling more so as fewer people answer phone calls and more and more people are online.

White further notes that “annoying and invasive” robopolling is “answered largely by older people or those who are very interested in politics”, while “busy people who are less interested in politics either don’t answer or hang up”. He also reveals that the new series will “weight the data by age interlocked with education and have precise quotas for different types of electorate throughout Australia”, consistent with YouGov’s methodology internationally.

Hopefully the restated commitment to “greater transparency” means we will shortly see comprehensive details of demographic breakdowns and weightings, a commonplace feature of British and American polling that Australian poll watchers could only envy. Stay tuned.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

968 comments on “Newspoll: 51-49 to Coalition”

Comments Page 14 of 20
1 13 14 15 20
  1. “An ALP leader needs to be a super-persuasive communicator”

    ***

    The last time an ALP leader was “super-persuasive” and was able to really connect with people during a campaign was in 2007.

    Not even Rudd himself could repeat that Kevin 07 effort. Although, he was “persuasive” enough to return to the leadership, which was quite an achievement in itself considering how he was dumped. Did a lot of damage in the process but the feat of returning to the top job after having lost it is certainly not to be scoffed at on a personal level. It’s a rare feat indeed.

  2. FMD there is more active measures for the day from Tucker Carlson at Fox news.

    Waffle “Never Partisan” Woky
    @wokyleeks
    ·
    31m
    HOLY SHIT now he’s peddling WikiLeaks deza about the chemical attacks in Syria.

    Dude is PR for the enemy!!!

    What the fuck is this and how does it not require a FARA?

    @thespybrief

    @MingGao26

    @ericgarland
    Quote Tweet

    Acyn Torabi
    @Acyn
    · 33m
    There’s a new Assad apologist in town

  3. SH-Y: David Leyonhjelm tried to publicly shame me – I had to call him out
    Sarah Hanson-Young

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/26/david-leyonhjelm-tried-to-publicly-shame-me-i-had-to-call-him-out

    Justice White found that the defences that Leyonhjelm attempted failed. It was far from insignificant that the court found Leyonhjelm was motivated by malice. That his intention was to publicly shame me.

    It felt intentional. It felt malicious. But so often women are told to toughen up, that politics is rough and tumble and this is part of robust debate. It makes you question yourself.
    :::
    But bullies are cowards, looking for excuses, for ways to blame everyone else when they get caught. Robust debate is fine. Strong and passionate debate over policy is healthy and needed in a democracy – but there is a line.

  4. The last time an ALP leader was “super-persuasive” and was able to really connect with people during a campaign was in 2007.

    I didnt think of him as that good a communicator. He often lacked conciseness.

    But he was likeable, from Queensland and here to help.

  5. What I find most intriguing about that OECD graph that Guytaur posted at 12.33pm – is just how high up the ‘per capital emissions list New Zealand is. One could be forgiven for thinking that NZ had basically already solved its emissions problems given how regularly NZ is cited as an example of a ‘Green’ revolution. Also in a similar vein, look how Iceland is up on that graph as well. Something seems odd.

  6. mexicanbeemer
    “Would normally agree with this except Iowa seems to be in play this time thanks to Trump’s handling of the trade war, in the last mid-terms the Democrats won three of the four congressional districts”

    Yes – and the Dems came close to winning IA-4 as well; the RWNJ Steve King held off a near 20% swing.

    I agree that Iowa could be in play in 2020. Joni Ernst could be in strife as well.

    However, I disagree that the results of the Iowa Dem caucus reflect the state at large.

  7. Nicholas says:
    No, that is an absurdly broad definition of definition of capitalism that no economic historian would endorse. The essence of capitalism is that land and labour are treated as commodities, and there is a class structure that hinges on the distinction between a class that owns productive resources, and a class that has to earn a living by selling labour services to that owning class, and a professional managerial class that is employed by the owners to manage the labourers.
    —————————————————–
    That is a political structure because government has always been at the centre of the economy and society. Medieval kings would reward favorites with land but could also strip land owners of their land.

  8. Senator Cash will be making a public apology in due course, aka never ever ever.

    The Federal Court has ordered the unions watchdog to quash its investigation into the Australian Workers Union and return all documents it seized during controversial federal police raids in 2017.

    Federal Court Justice Mordecai Bromberg issued an order on Tuesday quashing the Registered Organisations Commission (ROC) decision to investigate the AWU in October 2017. The ROC has also been ordered to return all documents it seized during the police raids of AWU offices.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/illegal-pursuit-federal-court-quashes-awu-investigation-20191126-p53e6z.html

  9. Capitalism may have developed out of the Monarchic/Aristocratic/Feudal order. But there is also very clearly a tendency for Capitalist development to give rise to neo-Feudal relations….to the re-instatement of property-in-humans, to the bonding of labour to the means of production, to the abolition of the rights of ‘free’ workers. It is the case that corporations are largely baronial in their privileges. They are exempt from the law much of the time. It is also the case that workers are largely held in a kind of bonded servitude within the system, within a system in which they have few choices. These days workers have the choices allowed them as ‘consumers’…as clients of the capitalist economy. But they have few rights as workers…as servants of the capitalist economy.

  10. RI
    says:
    Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at 1:37 pm
    Capitalism may have developed out of the Monarchic/Aristocratic/Feudal order. But there is also very clearly a tendency for Capitalist development to give rise to neo-Feudal relations
    _________________________
    Of course the Roman Republic/Empire had an advanced capitalist structure including banks, a stock market and commodity trading.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_economy

  11. Roman mining was also quite advanced:

    Hydraulic mining, which Pliny referred to as ruina montium (“ruin of the mountains”), allowed base and precious metals to be extracted on a proto-industrial scale.[16] The total annual iron output is estimated at 82,500 tonnes,.[17] Copper was produced at an annual rate of 15,000 t,[18] and lead at 80,000 t,[19] both production levels unmatched until the Industrial Revolution

  12. Andrew_Earlwood @ #656 Tuesday, November 26th, 2019 – 1:32 pm

    What I find most intriguing about that OECD graph that Guytaur posted at 12.33pm – is just how high up the ‘per capital emissions list New Zealand is. One could be forgiven for thinking that NZ had basically already solved its emissions problems given how regularly NZ is cited as an example of a ‘Green’ revolution. Also in a similar vein, look how Iceland is up on that graph as well. Something seems odd.

    Although it is useful for pointing out how Australians “talk the talk” but don’t “walk the walk”, per-capita emissions is a actually a very poor measure. Total emissions is where Australia really “punches above its weight”, and New Zealand is way back in the dust. And if you use other accounting methods (such as extraction-based accounting) then Australia rockets right up to the top three.

  13. Frydenberg and Morrison presumably want to claim credit for the departure of the Westpac CEO:

    Treasurer toasts exit of Westpac’s Hartzer

    The federal treasurer has welcomed news Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer is stepping down, as the bank battles a money laundering and child exploitation scandal (Canberra Times headline)

    In reality they are claiming credit for this:

    Westpac’s chief executive Brian Hartzer will step down in the wake of allegations the bank committed 23 million breaches of Australia’s anti-money laundering laws.

    Mr Hartzer will depart the bank on December 2, but has been given 12 months’ notice and will be paid his full $2.7 million salary for the period.

    However, his so-far unvested short and long-term bonuses will not be paid and he will not be eligible for any future bonuses.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-26/westpac-ceo-brian-hartzer-quits-money-laundering-scandal/11737864

    Feather duster punishment for corporate wrongdoers is what the LNP and IPA stand for.

  14. A-E
    The graph may be accurate, but what does it measure?
    A balanced CO2 budget would be based on the total of consumption of CO2 emissions whether these emissions are created domestically or whether these emissions are created overseas.
    This would radically re-arrange the graph.
    This would get rid of the confusion that surrounds fossil fuel exports/imports.
    It would also make possible an eventual CO2 tariff system.
    There is a tendency by some commentators to count the latter twice: once as an export (as, for example, with Australia’s coal exports), and the second time when they are burned (as, for example, in China’s coal-fired CO2 emissions.)

    The results of not getting this consistent and integrated can be ludicrous. Some folk in the UK look down on Australia for exporting coal but the UK imports the equivalent of around 800 million tonnes of CO2 emissions by way of imported food and manufactured items).

  15. RI/Briefly
    I think that could be argued is political. Essentially the political debate is about the role of the state and economics was called political science because they are mainly concerned with the allocation of resources which then flows into the political debate. The role of the state as in should it be passive or active is the simplest way of looking at the two wings of politics.

  16. Andrew_Earlwoodsays:
    Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at 1:32 pm

    What I find most intriguing about that OECD graph that Guytaur posted at 12.33pm – is just how high up the ‘per capital emissions list New Zealand is. One could be forgiven for thinking that NZ had basically already solved its emissions problems given how regularly NZ is cited as an example of a ‘Green’ revolution. Also in a similar vein, look how Iceland is up on that graph as well. Something seems odd.

    Maybe they’re counting their volcanoes? 🙂

  17. And the Romans also kept slaves. They were possibly ultra capitalist. Militarist. Corrupt. Elitist. Decadent. Patriarchal. Imperialist.

    Marx’s ideas about capitalism were quite Anglo-centric, focused on conditions in the industrial economy of England, Wales and Scotland, and in part drawn from German philosophy. He did not know everything….quite obviously. He would probably not have predicted Revolutions in his name would be carried out in agrarian Russia and China.

  18. Well, let’s see where this leads.

    New South Wales police have contacted the City of Sydney requesting information about downloads of its 2017-18 annual report after an altered version was relied upon by the minister for energy, Angus Taylor, to lash the lord mayor, Clover Moore, over the council’s carbon footprint and accuse her of hypocrisy.

    A NSW police spokesperson said the investigation was in the early stages and detectives from the state crime command’s financial crimes squad had launched Strike Force Garrad to determine if any criminal offences had been committed.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/26/nsw-police-investigating-doctored-document-angus-taylor-used-in-clover-moore-attack

  19. Boerwar says:
    Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at 1:48 pm
    $2.7 million for overseeing commission of around 20 million crimes?
    Sick.
    But, where do I sign up?

    What a pity that victims of crime legislation does not allow the $2.7 million and more to be paid to the children who were horribly abused.

  20. poroti @ #627 Tuesday, November 26th, 2019 – 1:05 pm

    Notice the Fraudenberg’s choice of words, “inspired from” . Not following recommendations but “inspired from” . Yeah, ‘inspired’ just like those crap movies/shows that advertise that they are based on or inspired by ‘real events’ but portray utter fiction.

    Josh Frydenberg says more legislation inspired from the banking royal commission recommendations will be coming this week,

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2019/nov/26/coalition-labor-china-morrison-albanese-politics-live

    Too right. With this Orwellian government, ‘inspiration’ can be towards creating malign outcomes as much as benign or beneficial ones.

  21. ItzaDream @ #676 Tuesday, November 26th, 2019 – 2:05 pm

    Well, let’s see where this leads.

    New South Wales police have contacted the City of Sydney requesting information about downloads of its 2017-18 annual report after an altered version was relied upon by the minister for energy, Angus Taylor, to lash the lord mayor, Clover Moore, over the council’s carbon footprint and accuse her of hypocrisy.

    A NSW police spokesperson said the investigation was in the early stages and detectives from the state crime command’s financial crimes squad had launched Strike Force Garrad to determine if any criminal offences had been committed.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/26/nsw-police-investigating-doctored-document-angus-taylor-used-in-clover-moore-attack

    So now Angus Taylor goes into, ‘I can’t comment as it’s the subject of investigation by the NSW Police’, mode.

  22. RI
    says:
    Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at 1:47 pm
    And the Romans also kept slaves. They were possibly ultra capitalist.
    ________________________
    Slaves could also purchase their freedom. So they were marking money on emancipation and giving the slaves a nice carrot to work towards. Most of the Roman Empire was agrarian, but the Capital itself had some really advanced Capitalist structures.

  23. “I didnt think of him as that good a communicator. He often lacked conciseness.”

    Chaser did a couple of hillarious scetches making fun of that very deficit of Rudd’s. Reccomend looking up the ‘in due season’ song – a send up of the song of inspiring Obama quotes made during Obama’s election campaign. The point obviously to contrast the two.

  24. RI
    says:
    Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at 1:47 pm
    And the Romans also kept slaves. They were possibly ultra capitalist. Militarist. Corrupt. Elitist. Decadent. Patriarchal. Imperialist.
    _____________________
    They were the model for the British Empire and the USA. The USA based their entire political structure on the Roman Republic. The Senate was the Senate. The Plebian Assembly become the HoR. The Consul become the President. And in some ways the U.S Supreme Court was modelled on the Tribunes of the Plebians with the power of veto/unconstitutional. Term limits were also coped as was Roman architecture which the U.S Capital faithfully follows. They even adopted an Eagle as their emblem. Though not the wolf.

  25. C@t
    Thanks. So they have moved from considering the referral to investigating allegations. It will be interesting to see whether the Coalition maintains their form, which is to say ministers simply refuse to answer police questions.

  26. Briefly:

    Capitalism may have developed out of the Monarchic/Aristocratic/Feudal order. But there is also very clearly a tendency for Capitalist development to give rise to neo-Feudal relations….to the re-instatement of property-in-humans, to the bonding of labour to the means of production, to the abolition of the rights of ‘free’ workers. It is the case that corporations are largely baronial in their privileges. They are exempt from the law much of the time. It is also the case that workers are largely held in a kind of bonded servitude within the system, within a system in which they have few choices. These days workers have the choices allowed them as ‘consumers’…as clients of the capitalist economy. But they have few rights as workers…as servants of the capitalist economy.

    I am glad to see that “essence” (which is absolute) has been reduced to the relative “very clearly a tendency”. I (in my eccentricity) would say the “very clear tendency” is in fact towards the corruption of capitalism by an overly strong theory of property.

    Capitalists requires only sufficient property right to operate capital equipment (machines) at profit, no further property rights are required in capitalism, and any exploitation of property rights beyond what is strictly required is not capitalism, and indeed is opposed to it.

    In particular, the supposed right to hold property idle (or otherwise withhold it from use) is no part of capitalism (for example because holding machines idle is not capitalist) and in fact is inimical to it.

    Nicholas – being a student of history – will be aware that the modern notion of property was heavily informed by Locke. The so called “Conservatives” appeal to Locke often in support of “strong property rights”, but they forget what is now called the Lockean Proviso:

    Nor was this appropriation of any parcel of land, by improving it, any prejudice to any other man, since there was still enough and as good left, and more than the yet unprovided could use. So that, in effect, there was never the less left for others because of his enclosure for himself. For he that leaves as much as another can make use of, does as good as take nothing at all. Nobody could think himself injured by the drinking of another man, though he took a good draught, who had a whole river of the same water left him to quench his thirst. And the case of land and water, where there is enough of both, is perfectly the same.

    The Lockean notion of property – inclusive of the proviso – is sufficient for capitalism to prosper. It is rentiers, not capitalists, who seek to dispense with the proviso. Those with strong knowledge of economic history will be aware that in much of the 19th Century labourers and capitalists had common cause against the real enemies of humanity, namely the rentiers and owners of land and the banks. It was this common cause that built the modern economy with all its achievements.

  27. Danama Papers @ #684 Tuesday, November 26th, 2019 – 2:30 pm

    Ya gotta luv Amy’s sense of humour over on The Grauniad blog:

    Peter Dutton delivered his daily dose of JUST HOW SAFE ARE YOU.

    Breaking: STILL AS SAFE AS POSSIBLE BUT OMG L A B O R

    You’ve got to keep hitting people over the head with it, apparently, or they might actually think well of Labor for a nanosecond. 😐

  28. Mexicanbeemer
    “Capitalism in its modern form originated around then but the concept of trade and markets (fruit & veg and other goods) are a common feature across human history.”
    ——-
    Good lord. No wonder right wing Labor are strong supporters of Capitalism. They’ve reduced it to mean simple “trading”.

    Australian aborigines had long distance trading tracks across the country. Valuablei commodities like flints and ochres, amongst other things, were traded over long distances.

    But no one, apart obviously simple Laborites, think that Aborigonal societies operated red blooded capitalism!!

  29. swamprat @ #690 Tuesday, November 26th, 2019 – 2:36 pm

    Mexicanbeemer
    “Capitalism in its modern form originated around then but the concept of trade and markets (fruit & veg and other goods) are a common feature across human history.”
    ——-
    Good lord. No wonder right wing Labor are strong supporters of Capitalism. They’ve reduced it to mean simple “trading”.

    Australian aborigines had long distance trading tracks across the country. Valuablei commodities like flints and ochres, amongst other things, were traded over long distances.

    But no one, apart obviously simple Laborites, think that Aborigonal societies operated red blooded capitalism!!

    They were also into theft and war as well. So, likely the answer is yes, red-blooded capitalism was part of their DNA. 🙂

  30. Nicholas:

    Feudalism is very different from capitalism. If you are going to define everything as capitalist because it has different classes or it has inequality or it has technology then the term has no meaning. Your eccentric definition of capitalism has no basis in the history of political economy.

    Apparently I was not clear. I had no intention to define feudalism as some variant of capitalism, quite the opposite. Instead I am saying that most of not all of the undesirable features of what is now called capitalism are in fact the results of the unnecessary reimposition of an overly strong (tyrannical) model of property, inherited from the feudal era. That is, we do not currently have capitalism, we have capitalism corrupted by a sort of vestigial feudalism (or some other form of tyranny. And it’s currently getting worse.

  31. If the NSW police investigation into Taylor takes the usual amount of time, the LNP will be able to claim “no comment” right up until the next election.

  32. C@tmomma

    “They were also into theft and war as well. So, likely the answer is yes, red-blooded capitalism was part of their DNA. ”
    —-

    There is a logical error or two here.

    While capitalists steal (the surplus value of labour) not all who steal are capitalists.

    While the capital class are willing to engage in war not all who engage in war are capitalists 🙂

    Australia did NOT at all have a capitalist society/economy before the first fleet arrived. 🙂

  33. I’m not sure how many PBers have read Fernand Braudel’s “Civilization and Capitalism – 15thC to 18thC”? None?

    This is from a review written by Alan Heston (Departments of Economics and South Asia
    Regional Studies, University of Pennsylvania):
    http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/ope/archive/0308/0019.html

    Braudel emphasizes that capitalism is something different from the
    market economy, a distinction that should be kept in mind in
    understanding Civilization and Capitalism. In lectures in 1976, he
    said, “…despite what is usually said, capitalism does not overlay
    the entire economy and all of working society: it never encompasses
    both of them within one perfect system all its own. The triptych I
    have described–material life, the market economy, and the capitalist
    economy–is still an amazingly valid explanation, even though
    capitalism today has expanded in scope.” (-Afterthoughts on Material
    Civilization and Capitalism, p. 112) Whether or not one agrees with
    Braudel, this is his explanation of the order of the three volumes
    moving from the lower level of the daily material life of everyman to
    the market economy to the highest level of capitalism. It is a
    structure of thinking that is rather alien to trends in economic
    research that seek to explain the behavior of households, markets and
    business firms using similar economic models, a point discussed
    further below.

    What is capitalism? For Wallerstein capitalism is a system built upon
    the international division of labor in which the core of the
    resulting world system prospers, if not at the expense of the others,
    at least relative to others. A familiar enough theme from the recent
    Seattle World Trade Organization protests. While Wallerstein took
    inspiration from Braudel, this is not what Braudel means by
    capitalism. Braudel viewed the capitalist economy as in the above
    paragraph, namely as something above everyday material life and the
    operation of markets. Capitalism takes advantage of high profit
    opportunities generated by linking markets into a world economy.
    Braudel distinguishes between the world economy and a world economy,
    a distinction that is not felicitous, but as one searches for
    alternatives, such as “regional economy” for a “world economy,” it
    seems better to stay with his language.

    For Braudel a world economy features a core capitalist city whose
    commercial and financial spread may be well beyond national political
    boundaries. However, for Braudel there may be several world economies
    operating at the same time, and for each there will be a dominant
    core city. Capitalism may utilize an international or larger spatial
    division of labor but the hegemony of any particular core city for a
    world economy will wax and wane over time. Further, Braudel believes
    there have been capitalist worlds from the Italian city states or
    earlier, whereas Wallerstein’s analysis relies more on a Marxian
    progression from feudalism to capitalism. Further, Wallerstein treats
    the political empires like Rome, the Ottomans or the Mughals as
    non-capitalist systems while Braudel would be inclined to see in them
    some capitalistic features. He says, “…I am personally inclined to
    think that even under the constraints of an oppressive empire with
    little concern for the particular interests of its different
    possessions, a world-economy could, even if rudely handled and
    closely watched, still survive and organize itself, extending
    significantly beyond the imperial frontiers; the Romans traded in the
    Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, the Armenian merchants of Julfa, the
    suburb of Isfahan, spread over almost the entire world; the Indian
    Banyans went as far as Moscow; Chinese merchants frequented all the
    ports of the East Indies; Muscovy established its ascendancy over the
    mighty periphery of Siberia in record time” (Perspective of the
    World, p. 55). Braudel’s position would clearly find support in
    Mancur Olson’s work.

    One further point on capitalism concerns its origins. Wallerstein
    seeks the origins of the capitalist world system in the feudal
    breakdown of the agrarian society of Northern Europe in the sixteenth
    century. Braudel is less concerned with questions of origins, but
    would certainly place a European world economy much earlier, perhaps
    in fourteenth-century Italy. Braudel is equally uncomfortable with
    Max Weber and any attempt to tie capitalism to the Protestant
    reformation (see Stanley Engerman’s essay in this project). Again,
    his first line of attack would be to point to all of the developments
    in the Italian city states that long pre-dated Luther and Calvin.

  34. I think I’m going to go and watch “The Comedy of Terrors” starring Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone. I’m in need of of some laughs.

  35. Breifly:

    Capitalism is a term used to describe economic relations between social actors. It is only relevant to the social order. It cannot predate society….at least, not meaningfully.

    Ok

    Capitalism is not about technology. It does not cause technological change. It does not halt it.

    This used to be widely accepted – it was thought that it was the aggregation of financial resources so as to fund aggregated capital was the main driver of growth in the capitalist model (hence why Marx thought it proper that the aggregated capital be owned by the people).

    This might be called the “quantity of capital” theory.

    However, Solow in the 1950s established that (a t that time) at least 75% of growth derives from technical change.

    That is, it is “quality of capital” that counts.

    So in fact it is all about technology.

    Capitalism makes use of technology to maximise the power/s of the owners of capital….the financial, productive, social, political and personal power/s and privilege/s of these owners. In a sense, capitalism is both a veil of and instrument for the maximisation of such power and privilege. Since this power extends beyond that of any individual it was described by Marx as pertaining to a class. One does not have to identify as a member of a class in order to participate in class privilege or under-privilege, but this does not obviate the existence of class/es, an existence which is predicated on and made possible by the existence of individual property ‘rights’. The very idea of ‘rights’ is clearly social and legal, and therefore embedded in the concept of the Sovereign and/or the State.

    There is also some conflict between the idea of ‘human rights’ and the competing ideas of ‘Sovereign rights’ and ‘Property rights.’ The latter are the foundations of capitalism. The former is extra-capitalist.

    The modern proponents of “property rights” quote Locke with approval but appear not to have read him (likewise with Smith, as Zoomster alluded to). Locke’s theory of property fully integrates “human rights” via the proviso “as much and as good for the rest”. Locke’s theory of property fully supports capitalism, the modern “conservative” notion of “strong property” is a perversion of Locke’s idea, and in fact omits key rights (contained in the proviso) that are in fact required for capitalism’s long term viability.

Comments Page 14 of 20
1 13 14 15 20

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *