The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Does Australia have a plan B? > Comments

Does Australia have a plan B? : Comments

By Chris Lewis, published 25/10/2010

High levels of household debt in a world of competitive currency devaluations means the future isn't assured for Australia

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. ...
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. All
OUG,you missed my point.Why borrow from foreign banks and pay interest on phoney money,who just create the money from nothing anyway? We may as well create our own inflation and not have the debt.
Posted by Arjay, Monday, 25 October 2010 7:08:59 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Reintroduce competition into the local economy which labor and the greens prescribed away to fulfill their now failed desired outcomes.
Posted by Dallas, Tuesday, 26 October 2010 2:48:05 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
We are being rather complacent, aren't we.

There really isn't much in the locker after the mining boom fizzles out. Our next most successful businesses are the Banks, whose profits depend entirely on our not noticing how much they are gouging from us all. So when the minerals stop flowing, or the prices drop back, they will be in the same boat.

We really should start to shore up our economic defences. My view is that we should look closely at what is happening in Europe, and learn a few early lessons.

In the UK, Prime Minister Cameron is cutting a full 25% out of the public sector over the next four years. There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, of course. But I doubt that any of the 490,000 "public servants" will actually be missed. They are only there courtesy of Gordon Brown's ten-year programme to create an unassailable cohort of make-workers, reliant upon a Labour Government for their salaries, and therefore willing Labour voters.

Which was one of the major contributing factors to the $250 billion deficit that he handed on to the Coalition.

We also have a massively bloated bureaucracy here in Australia. One that is constantly inventing reasons for its own existence by imposing ever-greater control over the private sector - especially, but not exclusively, that ever-flowing resource that is small business.

Until and unless we make a serious assessment of the value-add of our overblown, overpaid and over-pensioned public service, we will inevitably hit the same wall that much of Europe has run into.

Our plan B should be to encourage innovation, not stifle it at birth. Find ways to grow businesses, rather than smother them with red tape and pointless regulation.

Sadly, the means to achieve this rests with politicians who haven't a clue how businesses are run, having spent their political apprenticeships either in the sheltered workshop of the public service, or a parasitic enterprise such as lawyering.

It will be a while before we have to face the inevitable. But it will come.
Posted by Pericles, Wednesday, 27 October 2010 8:20:35 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Pericles,

i agree with much of what you said.

However, i am keen to ask you what private industries can be the backbone of innovation to create new wealth and employment. Do you consider renewables as one way to go? If so, should its development have some protection from cheaper imports and so on? If not, what policies do you suggest are needed to promote innovation?
Posted by Chris Lewis, Wednesday, 27 October 2010 1:40:47 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
That's the wrong question, Chris Lewis.

>>However, i am keen to ask you what private industries can be the backbone of innovation to create new wealth and employment.<<

That's the standard governmental "picking winners" approach.

The problem with identifying potential areas of innovation is that they are, by definition, innovative.

"innovative adj. using or showing new methods, ideas, etc."

If you knew ahead of time where innovation was going to occur, you wouldn't need it, because you would already have the gift of second sight.

Which is, of course, the biggest single problem with government "support" to innovation in industry - they want you to describe exactly, ahead of time, how any assistance they give you will produce results. Add to this the fact that can only understand new ideas in the context of stuff that already exists.

>>Do you consider renewables as one way to go?<<

Sadly, we don't have the intellectual infrastructure to set ourselves apart from the pack in areas that are already well-trodden.

We do have a few pockets of clever thinking in this area - I saw one the other day that made me go "wow, that's neat" - but then we get to the next hurdle.

You can have a genuinely great idea, but there is no-one in Australia willing to invest in it at the start-up level. They all want revenue track records, which is fair enough, but which comes later in the cycle.

Banks, of course, want you to literally bet your house. Which means that if the business falls over, you're out on the street.

That's a bit of a disincentive for many.

>>If so, should its development have some protection from cheaper imports and so on?<<

No. What would be the point of "innovating" something that another country is already doing, more cost-effectively?

>>what policies do you suggest are needed to promote innovation?<<

Simplify the tax rules for R&D - that's R *and* D.

And find a way to help Banks lend to start-ups, where mortgaging the family home isn't a prerequisite.
Posted by Pericles, Wednesday, 27 October 2010 3:12:36 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
pericles,

what about aspects of productivity such as labour costs? How does innovation fit with such considerations in terms of resisting cheaper alternatives that will invetiably come.

Can we encourage R&D and come up with good ideas and encourage banks to lend? A lot of market economists say that key is to produce goods, nut just consume. Is china's success explained by innovation, even though much of its exports is foreign owned?
Posted by Chris Lewis, Wednesday, 27 October 2010 4:05:35 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. ...
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy