Sadly, I fear you may be right. In 1999, I considered taking up a senior post in SA government, but fortunately, they picked a 'local' and I came second. Still had a nice all expenses paid 5 star weekend in Adelaide with my partner and enjoyed the delights of the Food Market and Glenelg. Having watched the state loose the F1 GP (best in the world), destroy its reputation over both Murray River and water supplies, I am so glad I came second as the patsy, who was there only to show they had looked outside SA scattocray in their selection process.

The "scattocrats" as you call them are also "bluffocrats", and among other States are not taken seriously when it comes to water, energy and the environment. SA Pollies (particularly federal) are not the brightest sparks in town and at the state level, parochial is the best they can be described.

It a shame, because the people are nice and the environment stunning in places. I am sure the 'non-convict' founding fathers and mothers will be frowning in disbelief

Not so much a case of what if! But what has!

Adelaide is a microcosm of what has been par for the course in Australia for decades as we went, by deliberate design and highly flawed Government policy in action, from the third wealthiest nation on the planet and a creditor one at that!

To somewhere south of number 30 and mired in exponentially expanding record foreign and domestic debt!

The best and brightest have left along with their better ideas and in droves. Because in a country also mired in, 18th century, coal-fired power and handed on a plate to monopolistic price gouging interests!

They are bright enough to know, that neither they nor their ideas have a viable future here!

Consequently, all that remains are those not bright enough to succeed abroad, i.e., the dullards who to an intellectually challenged individual, think that we have a coal-fired future!

And indicative of just not a depressed Adelaide, but symptomatic of the broader Australian community, who to a generic man, cannot see a future that doesn't/can't include coal.

Such is the paucity of thinking in the wider community in general and government circles in particular! And nowhere more self evident than in old, senile, former pollies and their retired (never ever wrong) cohort of admirers!

Then we wonder why we are just going further and further back, like a tired old galloper with far too much weight in their allegorical economic saddlebags to do anything more than finish at the tail of the field!! TBC
Alan B.

So why did King's employer, the Carnegie Mellon University, base its only campus in the Southern Hemisphere in Adelaide?

No. Adelaide is not like Sydney and Melbourne, and those of us who live here are glad of that. The politicians are morons, but that's true of anywhere in Australia

It is rare that I agree with you ttbn but this time I do.
Leave Adelaide as it is before it becomes a horrible traffic snarled concrete jungle of a place like brizbanal is, best viewed from your rear view mirror or the window of an aircraft as you leave it.

The real problem ttbn is that at some time the interconnector plug may be pulled leaving the whole state almost as dark as North Korea.

Even worse, the taxpayers of the rest of the country may object strongly to so much of their taxes being frittered away on the failed states of SA & Tasmania.

In such an event the pollies may dam the river of money flowing your way. You may still have a nice town, & lots of great wine to drink, but without the subsidies from the rest of the country, there would not be too much to eat.

Deep within, the author is jealous!

As noted by the author, the people of South Australia are fighters indeed, and as they also realise good quality when they see it, they will not that easily succumb to the author's shallow and idiotic 21st century values.

The fewer the people the better, it is a blessing, so the net population of South Australia ought to decrease rather than increase, even by the current 8,000/year. This also eliminates the endless need for new buildings and roads: just use and maintain the existing structures and if some people are leaving, better still - use their buildings to replace others that are beyond repair.

The good tradesmen and women of South Australia can do their jobs well and do not need the imposition of foreign managers to try to drag them into the madness of the 21st century. If not for foreign interference and regulations imposed by Canberra, the people of South Australia could continue to produce and serve each other. They could even continue to produce good, reliable and locally-serviceable low-tech cars, unlike the Asians that flood the market with a short-lived jungle of gadget-full junk.

As for media, who needs it anyway? One ought to live their own life to the maximum, rather than wasting time and money to pay unproductive others to hear them whining and complaining.

Let those who are unable to appreciate the good old values that still shine the way for the people of South Australia, leave, just as the author did - Good riddance!

Independence for South Australia, now!

It would be more accurate to say that Australia + ALL of it's states & territories are dying. Sir Humphrey Appleby is driving this clapped out old Holden into the ground.

And, within the last week, a new gas powered electrity generator has come on line. It should protect us from blackouts this summer.

It is surprising that the Weatherill government escapes mention for its dysfunctional decision to close down all coal-fired power stations, thereby reducing electricity supply reliability and causing SA electricity prices to rise to the highest in the developed world.

Consequently, who in their right mind would choose SA as a place in which to invest?

Adelaide is not dying; it's just a bit slow to wake up!

Interest rates have been set at levels appropriate for eastern Australia, when the appropriate rate for SA would be much lower most of the time. Those, and the consequent high dollar, have been very damaging for SA, so it's not surprising so many businesses have gone. And the Federal government still doesn't recognise that problem, so unsurprisingly compensation for it is nowhere near adequate.

There have, of course, been bad decisions by the SA government contributing to the problem. But bad decisions have been made by the governments of every state in Australia - it's not a uniquely SA thing.

SA has a great future, but at the moment it's being held back by state and federal policies. At federal level there really needs to be understanding and acknowledgement of the economic situation we're in. At state level, the most useful change would be a genuine commitment to crowdsourcing.

Hasbeen,
>The real problem ttbn is that at some time the interconnector plug may be pulled
>leaving the whole state almost as dark as North Korea.
No, that's not the real problem; that's the imagined problem of the misinformed.

In reality:
SA now exports far more power than it imports.
SA has batteries, so can cope with sudden isolation.
SA also has plenty of generating capacity now.

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Yuyutsu,

SA doesn't want decline! We want to succeed, and we've got room for plenty more people. And we certainly aren't stupid enough to want to produce low tech cars - they were never that reliable, and few regard them as good. We should build on our strengths, making the high tech goods that people actually want rather than the low tech goods that can be made just as easily by people people overseas who are paid an order of magnitude less!

__________________________________________________________________________________

Raycon,
The power stations, including both cal fired ones,had been sold off a decade earlier. They were not economically viable, and it didn't make sense for the government to subsidise them.

SA was overreliant on imported power in the 1990s. Addressing that, and the judge rise in gas prices, and reducing our reliance on gas, did give us high power prices (though Germany's were higher AIUI). But now SA has the cheapest wholesale power prices in Australia, and it's likely retail prices will follow suit soon.

Dear Aidan,

«SA doesn't want decline! We want to succeed»

Nobody wants decline, but the world is in decline and much of it can be attributed to population overgrowth.

Of course, claiming a "decline" depends on one's view on telling up from down; and claiming "success" depends on one's specific ambitions.

The idea as if more people, more buildings and more money is "up" whereas less people, buildings and money is "down", is rooted in materialism.

I say: the way up is more peace, contentment, freedom, calm and loving relating, wisdom and the available space and time to reflect and achieve those.

«we've got room for plenty more people»

Technically true, but at what cost?

Import the rat-race of the Eastern states, indeed of the rest of the world? Why not spare the people of Adelaide this pain? If you like competition, strife and living on the edge, then really you should consider moving to another state.

«And we certainly aren't stupid enough to want to produce low tech cars - they were never that reliable»

I am very happy with my 1992 car. Before this I had a 1978 car. They last for over 30 years. Most importantly, they can be maintained by any knowledgeable person or a local mechanic, which means that you are not tied up in a forced relationship with some distributor representing a large corporation. I wish I took the original analogue radio off my previous car into my new one: you can't find such good car-radios any more, turning on and off instantly with one big button.

«making the high tech goods that people actually want»

If this is what you personally want, why inflict it on the people of South Australia? Go elsewhere! Currently it is the central government that imposes this high-tech through regulation, it's a top-down imposition, it does not come from the people.

[continued...]

[...continued]

«the low tech goods that can be made just as easily by people people overseas who are paid an order of magnitude less!»

They make EVERYTHING there, low or high. The thing is, we currently depend on it, which means that we can easily be conquered or blackmailed to compromise our values.

South Australia has the skills and resources to provide for itself with low-tech technology. It is only the high-end digital equipment that is not viable to produce locally or even nationally: If all your equipment needs is a few kilo-bytes of memory then this can be produced locally. If you need a few mega-bytes then this can be produced nationally, but when it comes to giga-bytes, high-density electronic chips which must be produced in a highly sterile near-absolute vacuum, the investment is uneconomic unless you produce some billion pieces or so.

The real question is, do you value your freedom?

Yuyutsu,
There is, unfortunately, more decline in SA than the eastern states. And it certainly can't be attributed to population overgrowth.

>The idea as if more people, more buildings and more money is "up"... is rooted in materialism.
Not entirely. More people results in more events, and also makes it easier to find someone with shared interests.

> If you like competition, strife and living on the edge, then really you should consider moving to another state.
If you like exclusion, boredom and living in the middle, then you really should consider moving to Broken Hill!

>I am very happy with my 1992 car.
Why are you so happy with something so polluting?

>Most importantly, they can be maintained by any knowledgeable person or a local mechanic,
I look forward to the next generation of electric cars which won't need anywhere near as much maintenance. Having said that, I'm not in much of a hurry to get one, as I travel by train more than I drive.
>which means that you are not tied up in a forced relationship with some distributor representing a large corporation
ITYF you wouldn't be even with a newer car.

It's very rare for government intervention to be the source of demand for high tech stuff. Even in the cases where analogue tv signals were switched off, most people had or were getting digital ones anyway. Likewise with the 2G phone switched - most people had 3G or 4G phones already.

Yuyutsu,
>They make EVERYTHING there, low or high.
Their ability to make high tech stuff is limited.

>The thing is, we currently depend on it, which means that we can easily be
>conquered or blackmailed to compromise our values.
It's not what we buy that makes the politicians timid; it's what we sell.

>If all your equipment needs is a few kilo-bytes of memory then this can be produced
>locally. If you need a few mega-bytes then this can be produced nationally
It doesn't work like that. If you require memory you purchase it off the shelf; you don't make it from scratch. If you tried to be self sufficient with low tech, a few kilobytes would probably cost more than a few gigabytes mass produced in Taiwan or South Korea would.

Dear Aidan,

«There is, unfortunately, more decline in SA than the eastern states.»

As I said earlier, "decline" depends on what direction you consider to be "up" or "down". I view the fact that SA drags its feet when central government tries to pull it towards unwanted "progress" as a big positive.

«More people results in more events, and also makes it easier to find someone with shared interests.»

Up to a certain point, beyond which it doesn't matter. There are still only 24 hours in the day and only that many people one can meet. There could of course be someone with a very odd interest (say collecting prehistoric beetle-fossils), but is the price worth it for the rest of us?

There are for example about 7 good full-sized amateur orchestras in Adelaide. Sure there is only one in Broken Hill, which also serves the region and has some shortage of members, but what should happen if the number in Adelaide dropped to 6? How many orchestras can one play in anyway? London had large symphonic orchestras even centuries ago when it was smaller than Adelaide and you had to get there by a horse-carriage. In any case, one can still play chamber-music in a small village.

«If you like exclusion, boredom and living in the middle...»

Boredom is an affliction, a withdrawal symptom for those addicted to excitement. Whatever one does or has, the excitement about it will not be lasting, so when you have that addiction you must continually obtain bigger and faster things, or you become bored. Excitement and happiness are different things.

«Why are you so happy with something so polluting?»

Among other things, because it takes me where I need when I need and has very little electronics. I don't mind the power-source, nothing against electric-power as such, but it is quite possible to make electric cars without resorting to high-electronics, so that even electric cars can still be maintained by the local mechanic without dependence on large multinational corporations.

[continued...]

[...continued]

If you really care about pollution then you must advocate for less humans! I have done my bit by having no offspring.

«It's very rare for government intervention to be the source of demand for high tech stuff.»

Talk about the NBN, forcibly taking away our copper connections!
Now they cynically consider all my private conversations as "data".
Or why is it no longer allowed (for new taxpayers) to lodge their tax online without a mobile phone?
Government now demands that new cars must be fitted with certain breaking systems and air-bags which cannot be operated by anything less than digital computers.

«Their ability to make high tech stuff is limited.»

What I meant is that it is all made overseas, not just China/Bangladesh, also USA, Taiwan, South-Korea, Japan, Israel, etc.

Should anything bad happen there, we find ourselves with our pants down.

«If you require memory you purchase it off the shelf; you don't make it from scratch.»

How much can you store? Once supply stops and the shelf is empty, they can blackmail you to dance to their own tune.

Also, all those chips that are manufactured elsewhere can be bugged, they can spy on us and be remotely-triggered to modify their data and take over all our equipment, communication systems, utilities, our cars too.

«If you tried to be self sufficient with low tech, a few kilobytes would probably cost more than a few gigabytes mass produced in Taiwan or South Korea would.»

But this is only the price in dollars! The question again is, what value, if any, do you assign to your independence and freedom?

Besides, you can then consider whether indeed you even need these kilobytes. Suppose you want a traffic light: it need not be digital. Even if you want it to smartly detect traffic, this can be done with simpler electronics. Well yes, if you need a high-resolution camera to automatically book drivers crossing in red, then indeed you need to pay the full price. But with lower population thus less traffic, perhaps you don't need this traffic-light any more...

my first job in Australia was with BHP in Whyalla in 1969,in no 2 blast furnace, then again in 1976 in no 1 blast furnace and as a transfer car driver. that was the year they closed the shipyards down in Whyalla.
what's it have to do with Adelaide, you say? well, i passed through that city to get to Whyalla,but about 1974 i was a wool storeman in The Rocks in Sydney in Lower Fort Street (Consolidated wool services) and we had a strike over a safety issue, but we lost that, so i went to Adelaide and still having my union ticket, got a start with Elders in Port Adelaide.
then again in 1983 after a long stretch of unemployment, I got a start in Norwood thanks to ex-mayor Mr Jack Richards.
I have a deep regard for Adelaide in far too many ways to describe now, but it's always been home to me, even though my finances would allow me to live in Whyalla these days rather than Adelaide.
oh, and by the way, scurrilous things have also been said about Whyalla but it seems to have acquired a new lease on life lately, haven't you noticed?
so obituaries about Adelaide do not impress me much. it is still very much alive.