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Co-operate or perish : Comments
By Tristan Ewins, published 5/2/2014Government should help SPC-Ardmona 'Return to its Roots' as a democratic co-operative.
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I also don't have a problem with governments providing low interest loans to well structured businesses -provided of course they can come up with a realistic business plan, clearly showing how they will repay the loan, which should be secured by the shareholders.
I see no reason why such loans couldn't be made over long terms, say 50 years. Long term contracts may help overcome the 'swings and roundabouts' of changing governments (keep the bastards honest).
I suspect however, the problem is largely about size. When companies get “too big to be allowed to fail” like CCA, they really need to diversify and constantly expand, to cover their own inherent incompetence (Peter Principle) and the inevitable decrease in economies of scale.
What we're seeing all over the world is the gradual failure of infrastructure, brought about by shareholders demanding short term returns, and popularly elected governments trying to remain popular. I suspect CCA was depending on a Labor Government handling their infrastructure expenses for them.
Smaller co-ops would be better funded (or assisted) by local governments who after all, would be the major beneficiaries of local investment.