Tristan, you stated

And indeed, the qualitative improvement in living standards which might follow with some programs of expenditure, such as Australia’s “National Broadband Network”, is greater than any purely quantitative economic indicator can express.

Could you please explain how this is going to help the plight of Australians. Given that it now takes me 1-5 seconds at the most to get access to my many Internet sites around the world with Primus broadband (with about a 10th of the speed proposed by the new network), and that my video telecommunication and audio quality is already very good, can you explain how the wealth will be generated.

I hope you do not merely refer to faster movie downloads.

Chris;

You hit the 'tip of the iceberg' talking about faster movie downloands - but what I envisage is more involved...

Transfer of data via the internet will speed up immensely - useful where there is a large amount of data to be transferred...

And there will probably be real time streaming in Hi-Res with playback - and all for free... Free because the internet broadcasters could tailor advertising packages depending on accurate consumer profiles...

Again: watch whatever you want, whenever you want, from anywhere - for free.

Furthermore - blurring of the lines between the internet and TV - with hi-res streaming for interactive media... The quality of interactive computer gaming could also 'go through the roof'...

And then there's the one that's been mentioned an awful lot - real-time world-wide video conferencing. I know you say this already exists - but the quality will be vastly improved.

Also: with greatly increased bandwidth - and end to meagre download limits as we know them...

Finally - there will most likely be applications that haven't been thought of yet... Would welcome any commentators with further ideas here...

5 years ago no one had even imagined
Facebook
Myspace
YouTube
Skype
World of Warcraft
Imageshack
GoogleEarth
BitTorrent
iTunes
PartyPoker
Betfair
Get up
EBay
Paypal

Im sure you get the idea. In 5 or 10 years who knows what we will have.

Tristan
Won't the government get the resources that it is to inject into the economy, by taking them from the economy somewhere else?

How do you know that the uses and benefits that must be foregone by withdrawing resources from employment A will not be greater than the uses and benefits to be derived from diverting the same resources to employment B?

Tristan

'Any minor difficulty with inflation later down the track is no reason to axe the economic stimulus, including the expenditure on economic and social infrastructure.'

figures released today show that two thirds of the toxic debt in the USA, you recall the debt that Kevvy reckon caused the collapse of the western capitalist system, is still on the balance sheets of the banks. Now add to that the Fed Res is still printing money hand over fist, don't you think the crisis of hyper-inflation might be more likely than 'a minor difficulty with inflation' in the not too distant future?

If you accept the notion that government borrowings not only add to interest rates but also to inflation ... well you do the maths.

Mate my view is simply that all the already misdirected stimulus spending has only put off the real crunch, adding to it now is pretty much pointless.

The catastrophe cannot now be avoided.

I accept that investment in infrastructure - in this case fibre-optic broadband - must come from somewhere...

On the other hand - it's always best to utilise human resources - rather than accept unemployment.

And investment in broadband now - is an investment in future industries that should bear fruit for decades into the future - and as I argued - will make a qualitative improvement in our material living standards... So - I think on balance it's a worthwhile investment... And so is investment in public housing: Again - providing a public benefit for decades into the future...

re: inflation - I think in the US that unemployment is the greatest danger at almost 10 per cent. As I understand it - Inflation creates uncertainty - and thus a disincentive to invest. But I don't think it's reached the level yet where it is the greater danger - as opposed to unemployment...

And - again as I understand it - investment in social housing stock could actually mitigate against inflation - and the kind of bubbles which precipitated the current global financial disaster...