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Redback Quarterly #7
An Economy is Not a Society: Winners and Losers in the New Australia
In modern Australia, productivity is all that matters, our leaders tell us. Economic growth above all else. But is this really what we, the people, want? Does it make our lives and our communities better?
If the high priests of economics want the credit for Australia's economic growth over the last three decades, they must also wear the blame for the social destruction that has accompanied it - the devastation of once prosperous industrial centres and the suburbs they sustained, as factories closed and workers were forced to abandon their trades. The social costs of this 'economic modernisation' have been immense, but today are virtually ignored. The fracturing of communities continues apace.
"An Economy Is Not a Society" is a passionate and personal "J'accuse" against the people whose abandonment of moral policy making has ripped the guts out of Australia's old industrial communities, robbed the country of manufacturing knowhow, reversed our national ethos of egalitarianism and broken the sense of common purpose that once existed between rulers and ruled.
Those in power, Dennis Glover argues, must abandon the idea that a better society is purely about offering individuals more dollars in their pockets. What we desperately need is a conversation about the lives, working conditions, jobs and communities we want for ourselves and our families - and we need to choose a future that is designed to benefit all the Australian people, not just some.
Dennis Glover is the son and brother of Dandenong factory workers. He grew up in Doveton before studying at Monash University and King's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD in history. He has worked for two decades as an academic, newspaper columnist, political adviser and speechwriter to Labor leaders and senior ministers.
If the high priests of economics want the credit for Australia's economic growth over the last three decades, they must also wear the blame for the social destruction that has accompanied it - the devastation of once prosperous industrial centres and the suburbs they sustained, as factories closed and workers were forced to abandon their trades. The social costs of this 'economic modernisation' have been immense, but today are virtually ignored. The fracturing of communities continues apace.
"An Economy Is Not a Society" is a passionate and personal "J'accuse" against the people whose abandonment of moral policy making has ripped the guts out of Australia's old industrial communities, robbed the country of manufacturing knowhow, reversed our national ethos of egalitarianism and broken the sense of common purpose that once existed between rulers and ruled.
Those in power, Dennis Glover argues, must abandon the idea that a better society is purely about offering individuals more dollars in their pockets. What we desperately need is a conversation about the lives, working conditions, jobs and communities we want for ourselves and our families - and we need to choose a future that is designed to benefit all the Australian people, not just some.
Dennis Glover is the son and brother of Dandenong factory workers. He grew up in Doveton before studying at Monash University and King's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD in history. He has worked for two decades as an academic, newspaper columnist, political adviser and speechwriter to Labor leaders and senior ministers.
147 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2015
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110 people want to read
About the author
Dennis Glover
17 books23 followersDennis Glover was educated at Monash and Cambridge universities and he has made a career as one of Australia's leading speechwriters and political commentators. His first novel, The Last Man in Europe, was published around the world in multiple editions and was nominated for several literary prizes, including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. His second novel, Factory 19, was published in 2020, and his newest novel, Thaw, is forthcoming.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
August 5, 2015
I have long been an admirer of Dennis Glover’s politics, so I found myself taken aback when the book seemed overly concerned with the death of the manufacturing industry. It’s pretty obvious that Glover and I were brought up in vastly different situations, and that having never been exposed to the benefits of a strong manufacturing economy, I lack the insight and nostalgia of Glover. While anyone who has read ‘Orwell’s Australia’ will be keenly aware of his contempt for Howard’s lot, so it would have been interesting to see what Glover makes of the Coalition’s attempts to ‘revitalise’ manufacturing (although, I myself see it as little more than an attempt to avoid alienating the million odd voters who then worked in that industry).
With Australia’s economy intrinsically linked with the world (particularly Asia) I can’t help but feel it would be naive to believe that the manufacturing industry can be redeveloped in Australia. The very countries that allegedly scuttled it in Australia are themselves suffering the same effects of priced out labour in transitional economies. I’m not saying its right, but it may well be irreversible.
Glover does touch upon the hope derived from education and immigration, and I feel that this deserves more attention. While no amount of economic soothsaying can see the future for Australia, having a diverse and educated population is undoubtedly a safe bet. I also enjoyed his heavy-handed assessment of Labor, as it all rings true; Labor desperately needs to re-evaluate where it is heading.
I know it sounds like I’m being overly harsh on this book, but I really did enjoy it, and it has a very important message. I guess it made me think about topics I am not particularly aware of (or find depressingly difficult). I’m not sure I’m convinced that manufacturing has a place in Australia’s future, but even if it doesn’t, I do know that all Australian’s deserve the standard of living that Glover remembers from his youth.
With Australia’s economy intrinsically linked with the world (particularly Asia) I can’t help but feel it would be naive to believe that the manufacturing industry can be redeveloped in Australia. The very countries that allegedly scuttled it in Australia are themselves suffering the same effects of priced out labour in transitional economies. I’m not saying its right, but it may well be irreversible.
Glover does touch upon the hope derived from education and immigration, and I feel that this deserves more attention. While no amount of economic soothsaying can see the future for Australia, having a diverse and educated population is undoubtedly a safe bet. I also enjoyed his heavy-handed assessment of Labor, as it all rings true; Labor desperately needs to re-evaluate where it is heading.
I know it sounds like I’m being overly harsh on this book, but I really did enjoy it, and it has a very important message. I guess it made me think about topics I am not particularly aware of (or find depressingly difficult). I’m not sure I’m convinced that manufacturing has a place in Australia’s future, but even if it doesn’t, I do know that all Australian’s deserve the standard of living that Glover remembers from his youth.
July 23, 2017
This book is OK, but the argument is entirely based on nostalgia - no facts or statistics because according to the author those are simplistic/over-used...
The main issue is that Doveton (the town the author grew up in; its history is profiled in the book) no longer has jobs in manufacturing, and high unemployment brings its usual associated problems. The solution to this is to bring back manufacturing, subsidised by the government.
This is such an unrealistic solution - we are too far into the "Wal-martisation" of society to turn back. People will not pay $25 for an Australian-made t-shirt when K-mart sells imported shirts for $3. People will not pay $35,000 for a car when they could pay $16,000 for the same car manufactured overseas. Tariffs to bring imported goods up to similar prices would therefore not work, meaning the government would then have to subsidise every t-shirt by $22 and car by $19,000 for Australians to buy them. No party or politician could get that through Parliament.
One of the other solutions is beautifying neighbourhoods that are run down to encourage people with jobs to move to the area. Who's paying for this? Those councils won't have high enough rates to fund it, or they already would. Again, no State or Federal Parliament would ever authorise spending millions to fix gutters and repaint private homes as suggested in the book (especially when the ugliness results from neglect rather than natural disaster). Any subsidised beauty (art, interesting buildings, performances) is always met with an outcry of "we should spend that money on hospitals, police, roads and education; don't waste our taxes!!!!!!" from the public.
To me, there is no point in a book that says "Everything was better and happier back in the olden days" using only anecdotes as proof, and suggests only unrealistic solutions.
However, this quote is spot-on:
The main issue is that Doveton (the town the author grew up in; its history is profiled in the book) no longer has jobs in manufacturing, and high unemployment brings its usual associated problems. The solution to this is to bring back manufacturing, subsidised by the government.
This is such an unrealistic solution - we are too far into the "Wal-martisation" of society to turn back. People will not pay $25 for an Australian-made t-shirt when K-mart sells imported shirts for $3. People will not pay $35,000 for a car when they could pay $16,000 for the same car manufactured overseas. Tariffs to bring imported goods up to similar prices would therefore not work, meaning the government would then have to subsidise every t-shirt by $22 and car by $19,000 for Australians to buy them. No party or politician could get that through Parliament.
One of the other solutions is beautifying neighbourhoods that are run down to encourage people with jobs to move to the area. Who's paying for this? Those councils won't have high enough rates to fund it, or they already would. Again, no State or Federal Parliament would ever authorise spending millions to fix gutters and repaint private homes as suggested in the book (especially when the ugliness results from neglect rather than natural disaster). Any subsidised beauty (art, interesting buildings, performances) is always met with an outcry of "we should spend that money on hospitals, police, roads and education; don't waste our taxes!!!!!!" from the public.
To me, there is no point in a book that says "Everything was better and happier back in the olden days" using only anecdotes as proof, and suggests only unrealistic solutions.
However, this quote is spot-on:
Examine almost any major policy idea these days - it might be designed to improve the performance of early childhood education, schools, universities, hospitals, rail transport, freight delivery or a dozen other things - and you will find a similar formula.
Announce a national goal of achieving universal access to a certain minimum standard; set new performance targets; establish a framework against which to measure service standards; define the sort of data that would be useful to achieving this; introduce a data-gathering process; publish the data on a public website to put pressure on the service deliverers and create a market with perfect information; link this data, perhaps in the form of statistically modified league tables, to new pools of quality-assurance funding to correct failure; and, finally, set up peer-to-peer information sharing among the relevant professions to drive continuous learning.
This sort of thing, bought off the shelf from the large management consulting forms, seldom works. The data may get collected and published, eventually, but the necessary funding to make it all work and achieve the promised results never seems to appear. The Gonski school reforms are the greatest and saddest example of this, but far from the only ones. It's managerial fantasy by formula, and only serves to stop politicians from thinking about what they really should be doing.
February 24, 2016
Shows how econocrats can destroy a community in the name of the god Productivity.
September 14, 2018
Excellent food for thought. By focusing on a single suburb and personal, family experience of the process of neoliberal rationalism, Glover is able to speak plainly about the complex socioeconomic and moral questions we should be asking politicians.
June 22, 2016
If you're not an Australian, read on anyway.
Not all that long ago, a Prime Minister of Australia suggested that a group of workers about to lose their jobs should be excited about the opportunity and freedom they were about to experience, a mantra (if you like) that's been around in various ways for the past 30 years or so in Western governments, and usually from both sides of politics. What's left unsaid or unacknowledged in such statements is that finding another job can be problematic, sometimes impossible, particularly with revised international understandings of what "unemployment" might be, what level of unemployment is defined as being economically (if not socially) acceptable and the Foucauldian "discipline and punish" methods that have been engaged in this field for many years now.
Dennis Glover's theme, if you like, is the rise and fall of the community of the outer eastern Melbourne suburb of Doveton, in my youth (I'm a decade or so older than Glover) a tough place, at least from an experience of a practice football match against some locals around 45 years ago. I come from the industrial Western suburbs, but not the kind of manufacturing environment described by Glover, a member of an immigrant family, who enjoyed the friendship of his Doveton peers, even today, something I can't say of myself.
There's an element of nostalgia in the recounting of what Doveton was like as Glover trudges through empty or near-empty factories and damaged streets. Whilst an obvious tragedy – "An Economy is not a Society" seems fairly obvious to me as a statement, if not to others – some of the ideas behind the various excursions and discussions, as well as the standard of decision-making involved at various times (e.g. the recently upgraded school buildings now abandoned and crumbling) bear some examination.
Glover starts with Schumpeter's notion of "creative destruction" as the basis for the changes of the 1980s in Australia and elsewhere. He is a man of the left and points out Marx's similar idea, although with different presumptions about what might happen after this perspective is implemented. He implies that factory management policy changed over time from a somewhat benign approach, to one fixed on profits, therefore the moving of a factory to another country where labour is cheaper for instance and comments interestingly on loyalty, mostly its disappearance from the general experience of the employee. notwithstanding Dennis Glover is an historian and former speechwriter.
Another aspect of discourse is the notion of "productivity" where Glover criticises both the presumptions behind the current use of the term (again, not too difficult), how the Productivity Commission sees the world (not particularly broadly, or perhaps in much depth) and how it influences public policy.
Implied in all this is the reality that "economic reform" has never really included much thought about what a future workforce might be like, or the obvious imperative to have a high level of employment for revenue reasons (people then pay taxes and so services can be provided), as well as social reasons (this should be obvious in that employment provides a link to the support of and engagement with society and so therefore less disaffected youth, perhaps fewer mental health and substance abuse issues).
There's also the issue of manufacturing in Australia, which doesn't seem to have bothered recent national governments whose main aim seems to be to have it disappear, without thinking about what people will do after that and how much pressure that will put on government expenditure. If you're a small government person (I'm not) then this is a big problem as more social problems and expenditure are created.
I think some of these issues are clouded over by Glover's love affair with the culture of his childhood and youth, and wonder how effectively he articulated these concerns when he was a speechwriter for the previous Labor government.
I think he's right to point out that the lionised Hawke-Keating government of the 1980s and early 1990s didn't really think much about particular outcomes, like future employment, as well as education and training and it's always bewildered me why those in the Treasurer position during and since that time get much kudos at all, as they appear to have been either ideologically bound in a particularly narrow sense, or the kind of pragmatist who uses public funds to ensure re-election rather than look after the country. My impression is that these people really didn't reflect much on their role or a government's role in protecting its citizens. By that I don't mean trade barriers, but growing inequality, homeless people, social unrest.
Other countries have similar experiences, of course, particularly the US and UK. I would have liked a more in-depth assessment from Glover but at heart it is really a personal memoir.
Not all that long ago, a Prime Minister of Australia suggested that a group of workers about to lose their jobs should be excited about the opportunity and freedom they were about to experience, a mantra (if you like) that's been around in various ways for the past 30 years or so in Western governments, and usually from both sides of politics. What's left unsaid or unacknowledged in such statements is that finding another job can be problematic, sometimes impossible, particularly with revised international understandings of what "unemployment" might be, what level of unemployment is defined as being economically (if not socially) acceptable and the Foucauldian "discipline and punish" methods that have been engaged in this field for many years now.
Dennis Glover's theme, if you like, is the rise and fall of the community of the outer eastern Melbourne suburb of Doveton, in my youth (I'm a decade or so older than Glover) a tough place, at least from an experience of a practice football match against some locals around 45 years ago. I come from the industrial Western suburbs, but not the kind of manufacturing environment described by Glover, a member of an immigrant family, who enjoyed the friendship of his Doveton peers, even today, something I can't say of myself.
There's an element of nostalgia in the recounting of what Doveton was like as Glover trudges through empty or near-empty factories and damaged streets. Whilst an obvious tragedy – "An Economy is not a Society" seems fairly obvious to me as a statement, if not to others – some of the ideas behind the various excursions and discussions, as well as the standard of decision-making involved at various times (e.g. the recently upgraded school buildings now abandoned and crumbling) bear some examination.
Glover starts with Schumpeter's notion of "creative destruction" as the basis for the changes of the 1980s in Australia and elsewhere. He is a man of the left and points out Marx's similar idea, although with different presumptions about what might happen after this perspective is implemented. He implies that factory management policy changed over time from a somewhat benign approach, to one fixed on profits, therefore the moving of a factory to another country where labour is cheaper for instance and comments interestingly on loyalty, mostly its disappearance from the general experience of the employee. notwithstanding Dennis Glover is an historian and former speechwriter.
Another aspect of discourse is the notion of "productivity" where Glover criticises both the presumptions behind the current use of the term (again, not too difficult), how the Productivity Commission sees the world (not particularly broadly, or perhaps in much depth) and how it influences public policy.
Implied in all this is the reality that "economic reform" has never really included much thought about what a future workforce might be like, or the obvious imperative to have a high level of employment for revenue reasons (people then pay taxes and so services can be provided), as well as social reasons (this should be obvious in that employment provides a link to the support of and engagement with society and so therefore less disaffected youth, perhaps fewer mental health and substance abuse issues).
There's also the issue of manufacturing in Australia, which doesn't seem to have bothered recent national governments whose main aim seems to be to have it disappear, without thinking about what people will do after that and how much pressure that will put on government expenditure. If you're a small government person (I'm not) then this is a big problem as more social problems and expenditure are created.
I think some of these issues are clouded over by Glover's love affair with the culture of his childhood and youth, and wonder how effectively he articulated these concerns when he was a speechwriter for the previous Labor government.
I think he's right to point out that the lionised Hawke-Keating government of the 1980s and early 1990s didn't really think much about particular outcomes, like future employment, as well as education and training and it's always bewildered me why those in the Treasurer position during and since that time get much kudos at all, as they appear to have been either ideologically bound in a particularly narrow sense, or the kind of pragmatist who uses public funds to ensure re-election rather than look after the country. My impression is that these people really didn't reflect much on their role or a government's role in protecting its citizens. By that I don't mean trade barriers, but growing inequality, homeless people, social unrest.
Other countries have similar experiences, of course, particularly the US and UK. I would have liked a more in-depth assessment from Glover but at heart it is really a personal memoir.
December 8, 2019
I was moved by the passion of the author for the blue-collar suburb of his youth, now smashed by the economic neoliberalis. While intellectually I understood that there had been losers from these reforms, the book brought their plight to life in a way that demanded both sympathy and anger at the complacency of our politicians and thought shapers of society.
For comfortable middle class people, it is all too easy to fall into the trap of maligning that group as "leaners", "povs", "dole bludgers", "housos", of whatever currently fashionable epithet is used to laugh at, scorn, and write off a whole cohort of society that was once considered very much part of the nation. We hear about all the negatives that arise from those groups, and our fear and perhaps embarrassment about them leads us to look away or seek easy explanations that align so well with our current dominant individualist paradigm of the self-made man. But those of us curious and brave enough to read Glover's book won't be able to do that any more. He has brought that underclass to life, by contrasting their fate with that of those who lived there three decades ago in comfortable, secure and happy lives.
I was shocked to learn that asylum seekers, who tend to be concentrated in such places, are not allowed to even send their kids to school here. They are mixed in with the lower socioeconomic groups who live in places like Doveton, and this naturally challenges social cohesion when there is so much resentment at how the original occupants have been left on the scrap heap by the system. Yet Glover points out that the likes of Doveton are doing the heavy lifting of integrating poorer immigrant and refugee groups, while the comfortable middle and upper classes sneer at them for their racism.
The book has given me a deeper understanding of the urgency of the need for full employment in this country. Places like Doveton suffer unemployment rates of 20% or more, which is a major reason behind their destitution. The question is how the uneducated and troubled youth and adults of these areas can be successfully pulled up by their bootstraps to be given those opportunities. It would need to be an across-the-board program of education, suitable initial low-skilled jobs, urban renewal projects, childcare and social welfare support, and not least, a change in rhetoric towards these groups. The working classes helped to build this country - out of the working classes came the Labor party, the ethos of the fair go, and what made this place so great to live in. We owe them the respect and dignity of being brought back into the fold of our national community once more.
For comfortable middle class people, it is all too easy to fall into the trap of maligning that group as "leaners", "povs", "dole bludgers", "housos", of whatever currently fashionable epithet is used to laugh at, scorn, and write off a whole cohort of society that was once considered very much part of the nation. We hear about all the negatives that arise from those groups, and our fear and perhaps embarrassment about them leads us to look away or seek easy explanations that align so well with our current dominant individualist paradigm of the self-made man. But those of us curious and brave enough to read Glover's book won't be able to do that any more. He has brought that underclass to life, by contrasting their fate with that of those who lived there three decades ago in comfortable, secure and happy lives.
I was shocked to learn that asylum seekers, who tend to be concentrated in such places, are not allowed to even send their kids to school here. They are mixed in with the lower socioeconomic groups who live in places like Doveton, and this naturally challenges social cohesion when there is so much resentment at how the original occupants have been left on the scrap heap by the system. Yet Glover points out that the likes of Doveton are doing the heavy lifting of integrating poorer immigrant and refugee groups, while the comfortable middle and upper classes sneer at them for their racism.
The book has given me a deeper understanding of the urgency of the need for full employment in this country. Places like Doveton suffer unemployment rates of 20% or more, which is a major reason behind their destitution. The question is how the uneducated and troubled youth and adults of these areas can be successfully pulled up by their bootstraps to be given those opportunities. It would need to be an across-the-board program of education, suitable initial low-skilled jobs, urban renewal projects, childcare and social welfare support, and not least, a change in rhetoric towards these groups. The working classes helped to build this country - out of the working classes came the Labor party, the ethos of the fair go, and what made this place so great to live in. We owe them the respect and dignity of being brought back into the fold of our national community once more.
February 18, 2016
Two stars.
As Generation Y, I found I couldn't relate to the society and community Dennis was talking about. While I have no doubt that people in Australia used to be completely "self sufficient" (by which I mean, propped up by government payments and tariffs) and there was a real sense of community (as in everyone knew your business better than you did and people who didn't fit like single mothers were shunned) which today's society lacks. Perhaps the world has moved on too much for me to understand, but reading this book was like reading about a horrific social experiment resulting in an urban dystopia... This is what spawned cookie cutter housing estates and spaghetti road subdivisions. Three course meals at the factory? Union picnics? Incestuous work places? Being happy just playing with other kids in the street? Ergh! As a neo classical economist, perhaps I was fated to be put off by this book, but I found little persuasive economic theory or argument to change or challenge my established opinions... But that's the point. For Dennis an economy isn't a society, but for me the economy is a method of changing my place in society. It's always good to read an opinion which is different from your own and I appreciate Dennis' emotion when writing this, but perhaps if divorced from sentimental attachment this book could have delivered a stronger case?
As Generation Y, I found I couldn't relate to the society and community Dennis was talking about. While I have no doubt that people in Australia used to be completely "self sufficient" (by which I mean, propped up by government payments and tariffs) and there was a real sense of community (as in everyone knew your business better than you did and people who didn't fit like single mothers were shunned) which today's society lacks. Perhaps the world has moved on too much for me to understand, but reading this book was like reading about a horrific social experiment resulting in an urban dystopia... This is what spawned cookie cutter housing estates and spaghetti road subdivisions. Three course meals at the factory? Union picnics? Incestuous work places? Being happy just playing with other kids in the street? Ergh! As a neo classical economist, perhaps I was fated to be put off by this book, but I found little persuasive economic theory or argument to change or challenge my established opinions... But that's the point. For Dennis an economy isn't a society, but for me the economy is a method of changing my place in society. It's always good to read an opinion which is different from your own and I appreciate Dennis' emotion when writing this, but perhaps if divorced from sentimental attachment this book could have delivered a stronger case?
August 9, 2015
An interesting look at a time when Australia had a robust manufacturing sector, and the social problems caused by tearing that down. A good read as an observation of a problem, but not so convincing when it comes to solutions.
Perhaps I'm a brainwashed "managerialist" but I found the self admittedly emotive arguments fairly unconvincing. Just like economic matters must form part of a policy solution alongside (or under) morality, so I think should arguments for solutions include references to economics as well as morality. I agree with the end goal of greater equality, but I think there are plenty of economic supporting arguments for it. Deliberately setting them aside to focus only on morality just left me with unanswered questions ringing in my head as I finished the book (possibly a fault of my own rather than the authors).
Perhaps I'm a brainwashed "managerialist" but I found the self admittedly emotive arguments fairly unconvincing. Just like economic matters must form part of a policy solution alongside (or under) morality, so I think should arguments for solutions include references to economics as well as morality. I agree with the end goal of greater equality, but I think there are plenty of economic supporting arguments for it. Deliberately setting them aside to focus only on morality just left me with unanswered questions ringing in my head as I finished the book (possibly a fault of my own rather than the authors).
July 1, 2017
This was an interesting look into a community that I was not aware of; the Doveton community. I did not grow up in a time where 'everyone' was employed, like the author, so it was definitely a different kind of view of the world. For me, everyone fighting each other for jobs, high unemployment rates, $2 stores on the streets, are all normal. While I enjoyed his expose of the reality of this community, and communities like it, I have different ideas of what needs to be done to 'fix' the unemployment and social problems. A very interesting read.
June 6, 2016
Concise and deeply felt, Glover's book - which at 158 pages is basically a single long essay - dares to question the dogmas of economic reform that Hawke and Keating unleashed on Australia and which has since become the bipartisan economic consensus in our politics. The book is basically Glover's attempt to hold our political and business leaders to account for the unmeasured (and therefore, in our modern society, unimportant) impacts of all their theorising and policy-making. Get out there and read it.
January 9, 2018
I was going to give it two stars... But I couldn't.
I wanted to give two for the narrative surrounding the rise and fall of Dovetown, however it just wasn't connected to actual facts. An argument around wage equality or the like could have done this book far greater strength to argue against the speed of economic advancement and a deeper addressing the problem of those who are left behind.
I don't recommend anyone read this book.
I wanted to give two for the narrative surrounding the rise and fall of Dovetown, however it just wasn't connected to actual facts. An argument around wage equality or the like could have done this book far greater strength to argue against the speed of economic advancement and a deeper addressing the problem of those who are left behind.
I don't recommend anyone read this book.
September 26, 2024
This is an important story and has been well told by the author. The economic "reforms" of the 1980s begun by the Hawke / Keating government and perpetuated by every government since have decimated whole communities by destroying manufacturing in the name of increased productivity and greater wealth (for some). Governments are helpless and hopeless - they don't care.
September 21, 2020
A refreshing tonic to the endless political talk of "productivity" and nothing else. As Glover shows, this focus neglects the damage done to the communities deemed "unproductive" in neoliberal Australia.
July 9, 2021
more of a personal anecdotal look back at the 'good old days' than an actual examination of the culture that caused the issues he talks about. because of that it lacks substance and power. lots of talk about the what and not enough about the why
November 24, 2020
Career change is hard at an individual level. Multiply that factor by an entire community in response to an economic transition and it becomes clear why protectionism is growing.
August 14, 2025
A powerful reminder of the importance of community and how far we’ve strayed from it. Economics is dumb and made up and we’ve sacrificed so much at its alter.
January 17, 2019
2.5 Stars. Bit of a dude bro circle jerk, but lots of heartbreakingly valid points.
Mainly everything is solved by a universal basic income though I think.
Mainly everything is solved by a universal basic income though I think.
February 19, 2017
An inspiring book for lefties! It is easy to read and as for the numerous reviews saying it is heavily nostalgic, I would disagree! Dennis Glover is a political historian, so naturally, he is going to be writing his analysis in a far different way than any other sort of scholar. I think Glover gave a fair treatment to the place of econometrics, but while also discerning its limitations insofar as formulating public policy goes. Highly recommend everyone read this book!
December 15, 2016
Cover to cover of nostalgic waffle. Some interesting and sometimes valid political commentaries but an overall completely skewed and rose-colored vision of the past intertwined with a geriatric outlook of the present. Ignoring the disgusting social separatism and classism between the white working class and indigenous Australians during his romanticized era he so longingly wants to restore.
More out of touch pollies writing books for out of touch ruminants.
More out of touch pollies writing books for out of touch ruminants.
May 3, 2021
The first half of this book didn’t really work for me. It was based too much on nostalgia and wasn’t convincing. The second half, however, makes the whole book worth the read. If you are interested in how an Australian Labor party should move on from the Keating era of reform then this book will be well worth your time.
June 23, 2016
A book which turned out very differently from what I expected. This appears to follow the author's nostalgia of his childhood and the lost neighbourhood he grew up in. He does try to talk about society and the economy but does not do it in a way that is inspiring or convincing.
December 21, 2016
Great book. really simply written and short. it outlines why the neo classical economic model has really failed to deliver. glover points out that economics has no moral compass. as he says all people really want is a home, a job and someone to love. yes its that simple
October 26, 2016
I thought the book was amazing and a great read 10/10
May 23, 2017
I found this a rather dismal, self-congratulationary, and at times pompous and wordy dissertation.
There are, to my way of thinking, two fundamentally wrong ideas that underlie much of his argument.
The first is to equate progress with evolution and to see both as something we can change to our liking. Evolution has never been an entirely
positive progression and as many species have failed as have arrived and continue to flourish. The latter are only the result of the ‘survival of the fittest’ in as much as all life seems fit while it survives. Those that haven’t survived were fit as long as changing circumstances allowed and these circumstances were never in their control as he likes to think ours are now.
The second wrong idea that some lessons might be learned from the fact that most people now, and forever in the past, have cosy memories of things in the past that have been lost: we, mostly, do not have to take responsibility for ourselves until we have reached the age where we can fall in love and have spent between ten and twenty years being looked after.
Like the workers in Doveton, parliamentarians of all parties can lose their jobs pretty quickly if they, or their party, don’t listen to the people who elected them.
Glover does address, at least briefly, what governments need to do about their place in the world and while he describes the necessity of a history background, in order to have any real understanding of government, this seems to promote himself rather than add much to his argument. History, if it tells nothing else, makes it clear that a host of influences direct its long-term course even though occasional individuals appear to have an enormous role in determining an aspect of history.
Despite these issues and perhaps wanting to doubt his motivation, there was a rightness about his argument which was forcefully if repetitively written.
I had expected some mention of globalisation. The problems of Doveton pale beside whole nations worse off than there. A soon as morality and ethical considerations come into play I feel defeated. I know I have been very lucky in my life. I have never been destitute or anywhere near it, nor have I been anywhere near a paragon of virtue. I have been lucky too to earn my living in a profession where helping people earns some Brownie points but I cannot claim to be generous or ethical in a meaningful giving sense. The problems are too huge and I prefer to hide my head in philosophical sand.
Glover is right but what his concerns require is much more than changed party politics. It requires
There are, to my way of thinking, two fundamentally wrong ideas that underlie much of his argument.
The first is to equate progress with evolution and to see both as something we can change to our liking. Evolution has never been an entirely
positive progression and as many species have failed as have arrived and continue to flourish. The latter are only the result of the ‘survival of the fittest’ in as much as all life seems fit while it survives. Those that haven’t survived were fit as long as changing circumstances allowed and these circumstances were never in their control as he likes to think ours are now.
The second wrong idea that some lessons might be learned from the fact that most people now, and forever in the past, have cosy memories of things in the past that have been lost: we, mostly, do not have to take responsibility for ourselves until we have reached the age where we can fall in love and have spent between ten and twenty years being looked after.
Like the workers in Doveton, parliamentarians of all parties can lose their jobs pretty quickly if they, or their party, don’t listen to the people who elected them.
Glover does address, at least briefly, what governments need to do about their place in the world and while he describes the necessity of a history background, in order to have any real understanding of government, this seems to promote himself rather than add much to his argument. History, if it tells nothing else, makes it clear that a host of influences direct its long-term course even though occasional individuals appear to have an enormous role in determining an aspect of history.
Despite these issues and perhaps wanting to doubt his motivation, there was a rightness about his argument which was forcefully if repetitively written.
I had expected some mention of globalisation. The problems of Doveton pale beside whole nations worse off than there. A soon as morality and ethical considerations come into play I feel defeated. I know I have been very lucky in my life. I have never been destitute or anywhere near it, nor have I been anywhere near a paragon of virtue. I have been lucky too to earn my living in a profession where helping people earns some Brownie points but I cannot claim to be generous or ethical in a meaningful giving sense. The problems are too huge and I prefer to hide my head in philosophical sand.
Glover is right but what his concerns require is much more than changed party politics. It requires
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