Grammar......HAVE any people...HAS any person !

Valerie is accurately describing the bubble which is about to burst.

Good article, thanks Valerie

Some folks think we have it too good and want it all to end so they can wag their fingers and say "See, I told you so", or "We're doomed" as false prophets have always said.

The rest of us wish our children well and strive to make their lives and their children's lives even better.

I disagree with the naysayers and doom merchants, who want to deprive our offspring of growth, happiness and wealth.

There have always been people who want everyone to suffer through their meanness, hatred and disapproval of everything.

The only bubble that will burst is the doomsayers bubble, as they have always burst and we have gone on to greater prosperity and quality of life.

Hi Valerie,

Not all Australian women have had the right to own assets. While European women particular those within a marrige have had that right since the 1880's. You all owe a great debt to Louisa Lawson, who pursued the issue in those times. It was due to her singular efforts Australia that led the world in European womans rights when legislation ... the NSW Married Womans Property Act was introduced and passed.

Similarly not all you Australian women have had the vote and the right to stand for election. Most of you have that right for more than a couple of generations now.

Decent men never hit women but today there are many, sadly in recent decades apparently increasing, who lack that simple decency.

My mother ... of an earlier generation ... owned her own businesses and never thought herself or her sisters, whatever colour or creed, limited in any way.
Sadly many women today still lack that expansive view.

Sadly I'm male, older and haven't been able to go about in public safely for a few years now. I share that with many kids and women.

Now while those issues are things I've consided, I'm completely distraught that in this enlightened day and age you seem to have completely overlooked that community among us who don't hold the same outlook you do.

You are culturally insensitive in many of your comments.

Tell me how a kid or woman in an outback northern territory township fits as one of your 'we'.

On a wider view you are quite limited.

You seem to view the ascent and decline of former empires in isolation. As though they are divorced from our exceptional Western development and growth. They, like our civilisation, are mere stepping stones and precursors to great future wisdom and wealth. While individuals may decline the wealth of knowledge and experience, on the other hand, persists and is simply added too. That's our Western nature at work. It will continue because of it's resilience and ability to adapt. In that way it is very similar to Australia's Indigenous Culture.

On the contrary Amicus, I wish everyone in the future happiness, good health, enough to eat, and all the necessities of life. I just don't see how we can continue the growth bit, given that the industrial revolution and the success of capitalism have gone hand in hand with the exploitation of finite reserves of fossil fuels. I am convinced that we have the ingenuity to develop alternative energy sources, and also to create an alternative economic system that does not rely on growth, excessive consumption and mountains of waste. In some instances, all we have to do is look back to the recent past to see how to make do, quite comfortably, with less stuff, and stuff that lasts more than a couple of years, or even stuff that is not made of plastic, which hasn't been around all that long and will be gone when oil, coal and gas run out.

QUOTE..<<We need not live within our means, because individuals can have credit cards and mortgages, and the nation need not balance its trade but instead can pile up debt.>>>indeed is piling up...in a big way..via minimum payment/..seemingly/unlimited credit

credit that those who availe themselves of..it..CAN NEVER REPAY..watch how those in the shops pay by credit..bankers have lent many more times more money than can egsist in ten lifetimes

its sad/funny...barnaby informs us that aussie debt rates are unsustainable..indeed think about it..its not public bebt but priovate credit/debt..[as well as state debt...and debt held by these...quasi/privatised/govt utilities

qlds debt[according to the books]..stands near 57 BILLION...fast heading to 80 billion..as minimum payments...are put on tic...ie the principle is going to keep growing...AT INTREST../ursury

QUOTE>><<Our parents were told,“From those to whom much is given, much will be required”.>>they knew that govt bankruptsy...saw the fed go to the bank...when govt lived beyond its ability to repay..via ww1 and two...and grand scemes..like the snowey..[still not repaid]

how true the quote>><<<What we are living on comes from what our ancestors stored up...and we are using it up>>>> and the intrest just keeps rolling along.

anyhow its your shout...got ya credit card?

...just put it on tic...your kids can pay for it

Candide I expect eventually when the world leaves us behind with our outdated hysteria over nuclear power, we'll probably wake up and get it too.

The eco munchkins of the 70s and 80s Caldicotted us and now we have the result, no renewable clean source of energy and nuclear power generations behind where it could have been. The waste is no big deal compared to the supposed outcomes of CO2 induced overheating is it?

Time will come when our children will realize their ancestors were playing with their futures not just their own and turn their backs on some of the current unaffordable ideas.

Reduce pollution and waste, sure, but let's not go overboard and reduce a potential energy source with no comparison, nuclear.

Australia can continue to be the lucky country with agreat future, we have to learn to be a little more selective in our listening. All that progress that established Australia was done by conservatives with far reaching vision, all the damage done by liberal short sighted whiney complainers who want everyone to be the same.

When we go back to letting innovators be rewarded instead of punished, we'll start to evolve again.