Economic Rationalism

Economic Rationalism

Economic rationalism is for some, a Darwinian philosophy-survival of the fittest-and is therefore a brutal one. It would say for example, that government at all levels cannot deliver services as efficiently as the private sector, therefore it should have had no part of Telstra-it should have been fully sold off. However if that line is held, then because the private sector is profit-driven, it follows, that there should be no Telstra service in remote and regional Australia: such services would be highly unprofitable, and to supply them would be a betrayal of the privately owned Telstra shareholders. You can see, therefore, that if a purely economic rationalist line is followed, services are not provided or if they are, they have to be at a cost which in many cases in unacceptable. The 'real' cost to Telstra of providing mobile Telephony, in remote Australia, is many times what appears on your bill.

The Seat of Government

English: 2004 Toyota HiAce vans owned by Telstra.

English: Telstra sign on an Telstra Telephone Exch...

Similarly, economic rationalism would say that it is wrong for governments to plough money into indigenous communities: they have no economic rationale for supporting the continuation of existing service delivery: the monies going in have been seen as a tool that creates a dependence on the public purse; and, it could be argued, that because of this, the self-determination of our children, in these remote communities, will continue to be less than those of urban society, where there is more opportunity for development, and more availability or resources, that support and encourage self-determination. If economic rationalism, using an isolated remote community as an example, were to develop and continue an existence, and if we were to use economic rationalism for the purpose of its existence, then it simply would not exist. In other words, the community would need to find a reason for existence beyond dependency on...