[...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.