The usual suspect. Cheerio to your dad. What sort of decent society wants to go backwards. Australia used to believe in a fair share of its wealth to its workers. GDP up by how many BILLION? Check it out before you bore us with tales of your Pop. Congrats to the Lead articles author, sharp succint and chillingly accurate. Will we see workers resort to industrial terrorism? How tragic after 100 years of cooperation. However when someone is backed into a corner with no where else to go ............

Well I could be worse, like having to migrate to China to find employment for let’s say $2.50 a day, hmmm, and when money in the land of Milk and Honey grows on trees, then we all can be happy, It’s not the end of the world, after all In China Getting Fired means Getting fired. Employers are talking about productivity,”Competitiveness”
It would help people if the State Government would reform Taxation and Workers compensation rip off, and Federal Government over hall the Tax System, and Income tax system to something more palatable. Not just the work place needing reform, Government overhang and Control are a great burden. Remember what you earn is a small portion of what the Government takes from you and do not forget your employer, the Tax nightmare is unbearable.

From a retired old cockie, who has never worked for a boss in his adult life, except for a bush bank manager, but who has acquired a post-grad in history, politics, and macro-economics in his retirement. Favourite politician - Black Jack McEwen - Australian Country Party.

Now this particular article does not directly concern our present IR problems in Australia, but does appear to give an insight into a certain doctrine that has caused France and Germany to vote against the Anglo-American neo-liberal model in regard to the Maastricht Treaty and its industrial relations. From a political philosophical point of view, according to the lecturer-writer, John M Legge, although the neo-liberal model has proved to achieve very low unemployment, it does so through low comparative wages, lousy working conditions, poor public services and in the case of the USA, appalling public health care. But the most interesting point is, that even with all the extra employment, America cannot match the productivity of France and Germany which is attained with higher wages, and though undoubtedly more unemployment and the necessary social welfare, apparently the bond between employer and worker is much healthier netting the higher production.

Where wages are high, accordingly we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious than when they are low. Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations.
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The article by John M Legge is in the academic-based magazine “Dissent” recommended by the Murdoch School of Humanities, Murdoch - Western Australia.

"But the most interesting point is, that even with all the extra employment, America cannot match the productivity of France and Germany which is attained with higher wages, and though undoubtedly more unemployment and the necessary social welfare, apparently the bond between employer and worker is much healthier netting the higher production."

Can you point to this study which indicates that productivity in France and Germany is higher than in the US, or did you simply (as we all suspected) pull it out of your arse?

For those who actually like to look at facts, here is the ranking of productivity for OECD countries. Germany doesn't even make the top 10.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_ove_pro_ppp∫=-1&id=OECD

And for the real measure of how well off people in all the countries are, this is the stat that matters: Purchasing Power Parity per capita.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_gdp_ppp_cap&int=-1&id=OECD

Once again, United States wins (discounting Luxembourg which is a tax haven with extremely small population), and Australia is stuck in the mid-teens with bushbred's favourites France and Germany. Presumably that's where he'd like us to stay?

Great, Online Opinion's html processor stripped the URLs. I guess you'll have to go to NationMaster and look it up yourselves:

http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php

Part One:
T.U.S, I have to concede some points to you – I do agree that people are living beyond their means in a desperate attempt to keep up with (what the media informs us is…) the Jones’ … the problem is – isn’t that what the Government, the Nation and Big Business wants? To have a consumer mad population armpit-deep in debt? What if people suddenly came to their senses tomorrow and stopped consuming – what then? Would Big Business have to raise the price of goods to cover less consumption? Would they ‘streamline’ their staff?

Both of these are likely outcomes and don’t help the working man any more than the proposed changes.
Note that the profit margin would be the last thing to suffer.

I don’t know what your experiences are, but my personal observation is that the golf and luncheon type of management is much more common than the other type – maybe you’re thinking of very small family run businesses, that is, the ones that are left after the implementation of GST…. But I digress – they made a choice to own a business – how hard they work directly impacts their own hip pocket. Employees have no such motivation to work for the company except wages and conditions – the very things we are watching slip away. Or should everyone be making a united effort to make business owners rich out of the goodness of their hearts?