There is a debate as long-running as climate change itself: can capitalism, with its demand for endless growth, be sustained on a planet with finite bounds and limited resources? Freemarketeers say yes. For them, the issue is not capitalism per se but an economic model that does not factor in the true cost of emissions. As a result, we the people and the planet are subsidising industries that poll ... (read more)
Kurt Johnson
Kurt Johnson is a writer and journalist who has written for publications including the Guardian, The Age, and The Sydney Morning Herald. He has written one book, The Red Wake: A hybrid of travel, history and journalism (2016).
The middle class has always been the target audience for the ever-optimistic, benign phrasing of Australia’s economic prospects. It is for them that there runs a vein of exceptionalism that believes no matter what the numbers say, the nation is immune to the dangerous excesses of the American brand of capitalism. This extends to debt. Despite the widely touted fact that we have among the highest ... (read more)