It is clear that not everyone realises that our "fatal problem" has been caused by governments - including the current one; they are doing much the same as the previous one - spending money they do not have.

The practical example of: spend too much of other peoples' money (i.e taxpayers' money)and it well eventually run out, has come to pass.

Now they want to raise taxes - with total disregard on might very well run out too.

The problem could well be fatal this time. Perhaps it needs to be, so that we can start again, and finally get some decent, competent, non-self serving people in parliament.

Third para should read: with total disregard for Abbott's promise not to.

I agree with everything Ted says, except for the premise, the conclusions and the solutions.

In the first place rich people don't get rich by accident, unless its an accident of birth?

And market forces only work when operating under intense competition!

And become even worse than publicly owned operations when they are the monopoly!

And even worse again when the start up capital is essentially borrowed and the profits used to service those borrowing, shareholders' expectations, and any and all tax liabilities; or rather those that like regressive payroll tax, fuel excise and GST, can't be avoided.

Even so, Government can raise money for around half that of private enterprise! And then use hat facility to the benefit of private players; cause they're too dense or incompetent to kick start anything!?

Unless you hark back to an era when we built things like the now impossible snowy mountains scheme, and a time even though carrying a huge wartime debt, managed to not only build stuff, but became the third wealthiest nation on the planet and a creditor one into the bargain! And a time where a single income was enough to buy a home, a serviceable motor vehicle, feed clothe and educate a family; and still manage an annual holiday! A lot has changed since then! We've privatized this and that, and thus deprived this and that treasury what they used to earn for the national estate! And it's fair to say, hissed both mining booms up against the wall; and compounded that stupidity, buy refusing to compete with superiority lead states?

And nowhere more as a glaring example of their success measuring our dismal failures, than between us and postage stamp sized and resource poor Singapore.

Who have just gone from strength to strength, even as we raked up exponentially expanding record domestic and foreign debt; almost as if there were no tomorrow!

And exactly what you'd expect in our case, when logic and reason are replaced with ideology and dogma! And exactly the opposite in visionary led Singapore!
Rhrosty.

Now that I've essentially bagged the current government and many previous ones, here are my solutions!

We need to replace a growing and unhealthy dependence on foreign capitalists and the foreign control that begets, with thirty year self terminating bonds!

And that would give us access to every penny of foreign capital we could ever need, without also inviting foreign control!

Always providing that money is earmarked for nation building income earning assets; that literally service both the interest and the debt!

And never a better time to kick start a dozen or more such projects; like say, long overdue rapid rail and the decentralization that would create.

Then there's the roll-out on a snowy mountains scheme scale of thorium powered, can't lose state owned energy projects, connected exclusively to micro grids!

Which as the first step, more than halve the cascading price of industrial energy; far and away the largest cost component of manufacture in this country!

Then with production cost more than halved by this essential measure, set about rebuilding the national fleet as a nuclear powered one!

And as such able to beat the pants of foreign flagged comp. still driving their ships with ever increasingly expensive diesel fuel!

And we need to apply some of Lee Kwan Yu's undeniable logic and just retain ownership of all state owned assets, even as we contract the labor in three year hire contracts to retain the essential competition component!?

We need to massively simplify our trade practices act; for entirely self evident reasons; and tax collection practice, to make it entirely unavoidable, and therefore free of all current and also cascading tax compliance costs!

And having done all that, create the wealthiest nation on planet earth.

We have all the necessary resources! All the missing is the political smarts and pragmatism!
Rhrosty.

There were plenty of criticisms of the status quo, but the article was hopelessly short of solutions. When are we going to get the next installment.

David

Communism does not work. How many times does the practice of central control have to prove to be a failure, before dreamers finally accept it is a failure because of human nature.

Collective farming under communism starved millions. To each according to their needs leads to each making sure they do no more than all the others. No reward leads to no effort.

Central control of industry has the same effect. No reward means no effort. The USSR failed because only the elites could improve their lifestyle, so no one tried.

China was a cot case, & starving, until the economy was switched to capitalist, & farmers were allowed to profit from their efforts. Now they are the factory of the world, awash with millionaires, & they are a major food exporter. Hundreds of millions now have a future, other than subsistence forming & starvation in the next drought.

The welfare state is a disaster. It leads the lazy to become dependent bludgers, Teds disadvantaged by their own hand, but communism is a total catastrophe. It starves many of its own by making everyone indolent.

How on earth do we stop a new generation of dreamers making this same mistake on a far too regular basis? The first step in improving peoples lives is to demand they earn their daily bread. All wealth starts there. Handouts destroy initiative, leading to a new Greece, & poverty for all.