I was recently visited by some cashed up SA baby boomers as part of their nonstop travels and came to a similar conclusion. When not on the move they retreat to their comfy homes in the hills or the south coast. Meanwhile their kids look for jobs interstate and their grandkids face a grim future. That's unless they want to work in the aged care industry.

SA is uniquely poised to cash in on the biggest game in town which is low carbon energy. Plenty seem to like things the way they are now. That is a bit expensive but the lights mostly stay on. So why change?

We keep overpopulating the way we are everybody`s grandkids face an uncertain future.

I don't think that the SA " propertied and ageing audience and readers" believe that "all is well", Malcolm. They are just stunned by almost 16 years of Labor government, and all they have to look foreward to as an alternative is the Liberals, led by a gormless twit who does nothing, knows nothing. The gene pool is too small to produce a reasonable politician.

Ideological belief is the real problem!

Harold Macmillan former Conservative Leader in Britain, enunciated a belief in private enterprise and complimentary state owned enabling enterprise! Every western style economy rests on just two support pillars, energy and capital, unchain blind Samson price gouging private enterprise from either, unless replaced by co-ops like credit unions, where profits stay and work on and on in the community.

Nonetheless still private enterprise, reliant on free market principles! Prevent top heavy government from using any as their personal ATM!

Compliment that economic turbo boost with long overdue, real tax reform that for starters, would simply eliminate avoidance! And with that ended, end any need for tax compliance costs, which rip around 7% from the average bottom line? Meaning a flat 15% adjusted tax rate in real terms would be 8%!?

We talk tax reform, but limit to those who arguably need it least!? Tax dodging, profit repatriating, foreign corporations! Then expect Australian taxpayers to carry the entire load!

There're handcuffs and not just mental ones, but deliberately applied economic ones! We have yet to try thirty year self terminating bonds, that would enable access to foreign funds, minus the foreign control/tax avoidance/ profit repatriation we import now!

Not all globalization impacts negatively, where it does, completely negated by cooperative enterprise. Co-ops, Credit Unions and family enterprise just to name the immediately obvious.

As is investing in your own people and their best ideas! The basis of the Celtic economic miracle, before some moribund "politicians decided to open up their residential real estate market to debt laden foreign speculators!

And in one foul swoop, all but destroyed all Ireland's economic gains. A salutatory lesson never to be repeated! Least of all by choice!

An economic basket case like S.A. wouldn't be harmed by following successful Tiger economy examples, minus opening up your real estate market to foreign investors!

If only we had our own Harold Macmillan heading the Australian conservatives and welded to bipartisan pragmatism, instead of numskull ideological imperatives!
Alan B.

Fortunately South Australia has not yet closed its borders, and those who are out of work can move relatively easily to other states where their employment prospects are brighter. Most, if not all nations, have regions of low and high employment: in fact one of the chief reasons for setting up nations (and multi-national groupings) is to allow the free movement of labour.

If SA CAN be more profitable and productive, then clearly it should be. But if it can't right now, for whatever reasons, then there are other places around Australia ready to take up the slack.

Jon J

Yours is an insular view of modern-day employment realities, the casualised workforce.
Casualised employment is writ-large with insecurity: Here today, gone tomorrow.

The most effective way to "force" the unemployed to move to areas of " possible" work, is to remove Government benefits from them, and starve them out!

As harsh as that sounds, forced migration of the unemployed, was motivated exactly that way, in a not so long ago past. But then came back-packers willing to live the transient lifestyle, unemployed locals were not!

But of course, you are obviously referring to the upper end educated professional. Now there is another story; another altogether different reality!
This is a group of people, (the dwindling middle class), who can afford to move to another location to take up a well paying and somewhat more secure employment.

Unfortunately for SA, they will be left with the semi-skilled and unskilled unemployable, making up the population in the depressed rust belt, which Government policy of non-support to the auto industry, has nailed in!