Interesting isn’t it? Things don’t change.

It is always those sucking hardest on the public teat, the bureaucrat & the academic, who are least interested in supporting those who support them, & pay their salaries.

It gets easier every day to understand the emotions, & the reasons behind China’s Cultural Revolution.

Vanna

When I migrated to Australia in 1989, cars cost far more than they had in the UK for an equivalent model because of tariffs.

Not only were they more expensive, the range and choice was far more limited. At that time Australia not only had higher tariffs, it also had a quota system, meaning that importers only bothered to import more profitable, larger models. As Australia didn’t produce small cars this meant it was virtually impossible to get one.

By then Japan had long ago shed its reputation for producing cheap but unreliable vehicles and was competing with Europe and the USA on both quality and price

To be fair to Squeers, he is not alone. The halls of academia are
loaded with indivuals who think that their true potential lies
in contemplating their navel about the world and we should
apparently all take note of their amazing findings.

The thought of real work, to earn a living and feed their families,
seemingly is not appealing. No wonder Marxism is popular in
some academic circles. If only those pesky entrepreneurs were not
there, there would be even more feed in the trough for them.

I once served on a research review committee, where academics had
to justify their funding, given that much of it came from real
people, working hard, paying levies. Some were truly shocked,
that we wanted to know exactly how their work would benefit
levy payers and the industry!

Squeers is seemingly fortunate. That market economic system which
he hates, ie. BHP, banks, harworking taxpayers and others,
generates hundreds of billions of dollars, which various academics
can tap into, to tell us how evil it is.

I can only find that highly amusing :)

I say, I seem to have diverted the thread..
I knew if I threw out a bit of bait I'd be reeling them in :-)

As it happens I've worked all my life and still working part-time during my academic navel-gazing stretch.

But now, back on topic, comrades.
Do you agree with the author's neo-protectionism?

Yabby, true some academics are a little out of this world.

But without researching for the sake of simply doing research new ideas and concepts may not see the light of day. A rather long article on the change of management style at 3M: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_24/b4038406.htm

Academics that I have been and am familiar with, though not many in number, also teach, run commercial entities, manage departments, are involved in government and corporate affairs etc.

There are some research papers and theses that are almost 100% useless. I do not have any numbers, but let's hope they are in the minority.

http://currentglobalperceptions.blogspot.com/

First, let me shunt that drivel about the bad old protectionist period into the myth cemetery.

Australia’s era of greatest prosperity was the 1950s and 60s when tariffs protected family farmers and manufacturers. There was no poverty and every family had two cars. Widespread wealth was due to tariff protections; and the successful distribution of wealth was caused by the trade unions, which ensured that workers got a fair share of the national pie.

When the free trade cult won influence, enabled largely by the Zionist banker-driven WTO, tariffs were incrementally withdrawn and the poverty and unemployment began. Australia’s vast middle class disappeared, to be replaced by plutocrats and an all-pervasive poverty class. Over three decades three million jobs were lost, and a million rural and regional workers migrated to cities to find jobs.

This precipitated massive urban sprawl, gobbling up our valuable arable soils and urban ecosystems.

The urban drift strained our tiny city catchments and created a water crisis. Impoverished regional councils went broke and state governments absorbed these with amalgamations. Another effect was to put the ALP in power in all states.

Meanwhile, the foreign buyouts of our resources and infrastructure resulted in rocketing utility prices. And so on.

Now, how does this sound like a happy story?

Any reader who wants to know more about this actual period of history can read http://www.oziz4oziz.com/ and if interest is whetted, ask me for the free e-booklet Globalisation of Australia. I promise you, it ain’t boring.