I see Gemma in an English teacher. Thank goodness she doesn’t teach economics.

The idea that national economic self-sufficiency is good for the community was debunked more than 200 years ago. If you refuse to believe the theory, look at the evidence of countries that have actually practiced autarky – Afghanistan under the Taliban, Albania under Hoxha, sanction-affected South Africa and Iraq, (involuntarily, due to sanctions), Burma, Cambodia … Always and unmitigated disaster. Trade raises living standards, especially for countries like Australia which is very good at producing things (resources and agriculture) that the rest of the world need.

She talks of a “mining industry debacle” in Australia. This so-called “debacle” has given Australia one of the best records of low unemployment and high and rising living standards in the developed world. Give me this Australian “debacle” over recent trends in North America and Western Europe, any day.

Gemma clearly also doesn’t teach history. She says, “Perhaps a pre-1980's UK would not have been dismissed as 'a little island' by Mr Putin” She should study the political and economic chaos of Britain in the 1970s which laid the foundation for more than a decade of Thacherism. Stagflation, crippling miners’ strikes, a three-day working week, widespread power cuts, a government forced to go to the IMF for a financial bail-out because the budget collapsed, the “winter of discontent”, and record unemployment. These are lessons the lessons that should definitely be avoided.

Rhian,
Spoken like a true capitalist! I think if you re-read the article you will find I suggest that you can’t just rely on foreign trade or domestic commerce you have to have both.
As for the mining industry debacle I was referring to the British crisis.
Finally in terms of my own country; I am well aware of the mess that Edward Heath created and Margaret Thatcher ingrained. Scotland is a country that was brutalised by poll tax; a reason why a number of ex pats now live in Western Australia. I refer to pre 1980’s purely because the 80’s became the climax of those economic and political misdemeanours. On the flipside yes there was the economic ‘miracle’ boom but I can assure you, go to any working class family home in Scotland, the North of England, Ireland or Wales and they will tell you a very different story. I think you will also find that if Scotland becomes an independent nation it will mostly be on the back of a number of government follies in the 80’s.
Thatcher’s policy of ‘good for the few hang rest’ unsurprisingly looked good economically at the time because she sold of all government ownership to private companies! Voter discontent, worry, lack of clarity in government policies, the average household worrying about their finances; sound familiar? Maybe some average Australian families may agree. And I am sure Australian teachers would lament if they had to say as many times as I have, sorry kids there are no apprenticeships because there are no industries. Apocalyptic? Maybe a little but with good reason.
No I am no economist merely a lowly consumer. Oh and a survivor of 2 economic recessions.

"It's the people that run this country," said the landlady!

It doesn't do a great deal for the landlady cause, does it? The people in Australia run only one thing: their noses and their hoses!

Australia, like the U.S., is run by the ultra-rich, the corporations, the two major political parties, and various Sporting Bodies. Some people claim the lawyers are another powerful group but most of them have so many faces and dubious tax havens, it's hard to know!

Gemma, go home as soon as you can before you sink into the Australian swamp, one currently run by Phoney Abbott. He is looking around for a personality. Perhaps you should contact him and mention the name: Churchill!

Now look, I know that the only similarity between Phoney and Churchill can be found in their Morning Glories. But Phoney comes from horsetrading stock and perhaps the odd convict so what would you expect!

Being isolated at the bottom of the world has not helped we Australians, Gemma. But we can make a reliable submarine as long as no one expects it to leave drydock!

You left out the media, David G. In fact, I would place it number one before 'the ultra-rich, the corporations, the two major political parties, and various Sporting Bodies'.

It's the power of the (mostly) Murdoch media in Australia that has firmly planted the myth that the Rudd-Gillard government made a mess of the economy, despite the actual fact that the Australian economy has been the world's strongest now for several years. This spreading of this myth has finally enabled the election a much more neoliberal-friendly government.

It's the (mostly) Murdoch media that refuses to address the real economic crisis faced by Australians - i.e. that we have the world's second-highest level of household debt. Indeed, refuses to even mention it, because it is direct consequence of the user-pays neoliberal economic policies of the Howard era.

It's the power of the (mostly) Murdoch media that created the 'sick man of Europe' myth about pre-Thatcher Britain, when all factual indicators show that by 1979, the economy had overcome the oil-price shocks of the Yom Kippur war and OPEC crisis, the period of strikes was over and inflation was back down to single digits.

Indeed, the (mostly) Murdoch media does not even acknowledge the effects of the 1973 global oil crisis on the economies of both Britain and Australia - as the myth of wasteful Labour spending played too important a role in the 'there is no alternative' propaganda that ushered in the age of neoliberalism.

It's the power of the (mostly) Murdoch media that prevents any official acknowlegment of the fact that 30 years of global neoliberalism has been a catastrophic failure. As Australians sink further and further into the kind of household debt that only neoliberal economic policies can create, the (mostly) Murdoch media will always be there to assure them that it's all because of the wasteful spending of previous Labor governments.

Killarney, I included the media in the corporations group and the ultra-wealthy, Murdoch being a prime if sordid example.

We live in a world where most folk are on the take, most folk are trying to grab more of the cake, and 1% have most of the cake.

Our world has few values. Wars are being fought over scarce resources and Greed is the God most people worship along with Self.

Humans are rapidly heading towards extinction!