Every western-style economy rests on just two support pillars, energy and capital. When we were the third wealthiest economy in the world and a creditor one at that we had cheap energy and cheap money and housing as a human right and not so much as a negatively geared investment for the parasite class!

We had competent people with vision, who gave a rats, at the helm!

And a far more egalitarian society were co-ops supported almost every country town and put a floor under most farm incomes. We also had a robust and protected manufacturing economy.

Environmentalists seem to think you can have an enviroment without a robust economy and not possible! (Ethiopia)The environment needs carbon-free energy and the economy needs cheaper than coal nuclear energy!

And we need real tax reform that lowers tax for all taxpayers and obliges the dodgers and leaners to pay a fairer share! The economy must become our servant rather than as present we chained to it like a blinded Samson. I've laid it time and again chapter and verse! Time to start trying a few new ideas and before we're all toast! And too easy!
Alan B.

...Does anybody really think that life is getting easier or better in Australia?...FrankU

It's true, life wasn't meant to be easy. And I look back, it never was entirely easy. But it's not entirely bad either. Life has its moments!

But what I notice, is the increasing feeling that I don't belong in this Country Australia.
I can personally adjust to this feeling, and I can reason it out using past experience and applying perspective. This is the advantage the younger generation don't have.

What is stark about it, is the dogs breakfast this country has become. It now feels that all our institutions are nothing more than a facade of pretence.
I increasingly compare Australia to South Africa, but worse.

At least in SA corruption is not hidden. You know you must pay a thug to watch over your parked car. A bit like a tip in the US.
But in this country now, the enemy is the Government, at all levels.
The whole of our economy is aimed like a cannon against the citizen. It is mercyless.
We are plundered left right and centre.

It is increasingly obvious, as in South Africa, the dividing line between the haves and have nots. And that feature is speeding up.
The dividing line is drawn at the point of belonging. And that point is defined by your wealth. No asset, no belong.

Dan

But in this country now, the enemy is the Government, at all levels.
diver dan,
that's because its enemy from within, Leftist Australians, are sabotaging all that is right !

If we really want to get this country up and running we need to change from the current economic paradigm. And understand that a war on poverty is a war that is good for all of us if done well!

Only fools believe that they can get more from a deliberately shrunk economic pie or that we can have an enviroment without a robust self-sustaining economy!

A war on poverty never ever includes taxpayer-funded handouts!

But government-funded and facilitated cooperative ventures. Could be virtually anything from cottage industries to small high tech enterprises where the employees are also the only shareholders

This would not be free money but conditional loans supported by thirty-year self-terminating government bonds which would also do double duty as retirement investment vehicles!.

Co-ops could be small and competing for market share thorium MSR's power company co-ops or modest deionisation dialysis desalination water supply companies or pipeline co-ops.

Cannot be monopolised foreign ventures that defeat the entire object of our own enterprise. We've tried our best to sell our country down the river and nobody is better off! But lots of us are far worse off comparatively!

Given we use this as our template allow one dollar to do the work of seven. And with enhanced universal well-being, we can then set aside large areas of the natural wilderness as permanent parks that are properly managed by paid for staff and there for all to enjoy!
Alan B.

I don't know Dan, as a pensioner in Oz I think I have it pretty good.

Yes the free health care system "aint what it's cracked up to be", but it's not real bad.

Yes it is best to go into retirement with a few assets, but then why should someone else's efforts supply us with our homes car etc. I think we make our own future. I could have been wealthy if I had chosen, but instead I chose to go & do the things I wanted to do, when I was young & healthy, & at my greatest earning potential age.

If pensioners are poor, I would rather be poor than have missed out on my motor racing, sailing around the Pacific Islands, or the kids show jumping.

With access to education being so easy today, anyone who chooses wisely can have a lucrative career, & end up very comfortable. It is no one else's fault if, like me, you chose fun over wealth, or a career path that is poorly paid.

I don't give a damn if some have billions, it effects me not at all. As long as there are enough crumbs left for us to have comfortable accommodation, a car or 2, & food on the table. Oz today still offers that to anyone of sound mind & body, prepared to put in a moderate effort on their own behalf.

Hasbeen,
I'm mostly with you on that one. My setbacks were due to having been robbed on 5 occasions & no compensation from SGIO despite full comprehensive premiums.
Bureaucrat incompetence & vindictiveness played a big part as did setbacks of the Whitlam economics i.e. job losses.
Several exiting things such as being on expeditions & Documentary filming etc.were worth more than just Dollars in the Bank.