Capitalists preach "the market" for theworking class – stand on your own two feet, don't relyon the government – but themselves sponge off thepublic big time. Just look at the billions insubsidies andtax concessions thefossil fuel companies, huge enterprises for the most part, extract from state and federal governmentsin Australia.The vehicle manufacturers raked in hundreds of millions a year from theAustralian government for decades until deciding it wasn't enough and went overseas. This is whybig companies andindustry groups hire armies offormer politicians to lobby on their behalf in the offices ofpremiers andprime ministers –there's money in government coffers and they want it. And while the capitalists talk about "the market" settingwages for workers, in reality, they don't really allow the market to do the job. They use the whole apparatus ofstate repression, theindustrial tribunals, thepolice, the courts to suppressworkers'rights to organise to pursue their demands. But when acrisis hits all the bullshit about the market is thrown to the winds. And that is just what we are seeing now. Faced with thecollapse of thecapitalist economy, for the second time in a dozen years, with massive bankruptcies on the table and thestock market plunging by more than 30 percent and more to come, fervent advocates of the free market are now embracing government intervention to save their skins.
