Politicians will fail to address real issues at the CEDA State of the Nation Conference

Politicians are likely to demonstrate their inability to grasp economic realities at the State of the Nation Conference being held in Canberra by the Committee for Economic Development Australia. Both the Government and opposition have demonstrated that they have no agendas which have any hope of returning the budget to surplus in the foreseeable future. Both sides of politics are unable understand the fundamental issue of cutting spending and are locked into an irrational time-warp dream of perpetual economic growth to drag us out of our economic woes. They need to address realities, not illusions and should be looking at adopting a steady-state economic model proposed by John Stuart Mill. Such economies are not driven by booms and busts but are stable or mildly fluctuating in size.Steady State Economics presents a different view of how we could run the world, instead of chasing the illusion of perpetual growth. It offers the concept of an economy that is completely sustainable. A community with a size and structure that doesn't grow, but remains stable to match the limits of the natural environment and its resources. Greed and self-interest led to the last global financial meltdown. It was an inevitable result of Government policies, big business demands and mass gullibility.It will happen again (and again)unless Governments, industrialists, commercial interests and individuals choose a different path from the God 'growth'. The same greed resulted in a pathetic and useless outcome from the climate change talks in Copenhagen and it looks like the Paris agreement is also doomed. Traditionally, economics taught in our universities has been based on an assumption that continuous growth is the only way to generate a better life for everyone on the planet. It argues that growth will raise living standards, lift people out of poverty whilst the cycle of supply and demand will solve environmental problems and the depletion of world resources. The classic view is that exponential growth is good and fast growth is even better. What a crock!