Uncle Donald is actually one of the positives towards unwinding a massive global imbalance, where the West has been rolled by the East by policies of left leaning Democrats.

Trump is NOT Hitler. Neither will he ever come close to Hitlers authoritarian rule.
But China is and does both.

Glass houses? Environmental destruction is a cause of the wealthy populations ignoring the obvious negatives of advancing themselves at the expense of the third world.
They are blinded by their own greed and comfortable lives.

The delusion of such a view is now exposed through a pandemic which will cause many in the West to face off with a new and uncomfortable reality.
Global trade has always resulted in a pandemic which has decimated the West, and likewise always either originated in China, or came via China.

Which one of the brightest sparks of globalism ignored this little historic fact?
Another "suck eggs" to the West. As down we ago again, compliments of the East.

Dan

diver dan,
well put !

Yup. It's globalisation. Plus uncontrolled growth and, for the West, mass immigration of unsuitable, unwanted and unneeded people.

Yards of text about how and why it happened are useless. The important thing is, what are going to do about it? The answer at the moment is NOTHING, because we are expecting the people who caused the problems to fix them.

Good essay.
These two essays from the same book support Peter's arguments.
http://www.da-peace.org/excerpt-two-is-not-peace
http://www.da-peace.org/excerpt-reality-humanity

A reasonable encapsulation of historical events and global hegemony.

A time when we had unprecedented post-war prosperity, a footwear/textile industry. We built planes during the war era and cars shortly after. Could have continued with the aero industry, but chose not to! Had a sovietized style of electricity distribution/among the cheapest in the world?

Insanely set about dismantling those things underpinning the period, like cooperative enterprise, accompanied by the wholesale privatization of state and national assets. Sent clothing and textile manufacture offshore to counter for rising electricity prices, now among the highest in the world. The final nail in the coffin was the abandonment of a heavily subsidised car industry and consequential wasted billions! Testimony of mismanagement on a biblical scale!

We cannot undo this biblical mismanagement! But could revisit those things/policies/instruments that gave us a post-war period of unpreecdented prosperty.

We need bold thinkers at the top. Not the risk avervse blame shifters there now, whose only strategy has been to pump prime to oblivian?

Things we could do if we wanted to? Roll out the Israli saliva test with a 95% accuracy rate and seconds to a test result!

That would allow the broader economy to resume, albeit held up a trifle at borders as the saliva testing ensured that the virus was managed/suppressed and repeated testing would catch those Asmptomatic that got through the net initially. Managed with offshore quarantine, until we have an effective vaccine/95% uptake!

After that we need to embrass cooperative capitalism, the world's cleanest, safest, cheapest electricity. Introduce real tax reform. And deionisation dialysis desalination, followed by VLT rapid rail and a dual-purpose dual-lane shipping canal connecting Lake Eyre to our northern oceans and their huge usable northern tides!

The rest we can leave to the tsunami of high tech migration to these shores as industrialists jostle to get on the bandwagon. After all, at this moment there's around fify trillion in surplus global capital looking for an assured safe harbour!

It really is a matter of scale! And the testicular fortitude to introduce it!
Alan B.

AlanB

You talk through your back side with this lie.

*...We cannot undo this biblical mismanagement! But could revisit those things/policies/instruments that gave us a post-war period of unpreecdented prosperty...*

Australian prosperity originates from the mantra "sell,sell,sell".
And secondly, who is an Australian and by who's standards is that definition established?

An answer to that is, a resident is one who has bought their way here, or scammed their way here. A resident that has been traded for some benefit: Uaually a benifit to the invested class of rulers under the broad umbrella of politicians, or the wealthy classes cashed up in property investment, IE domestic housing, also for sale to whomever from wherever, with a virtual string of opaque unenforceable laws, hedging in the scbam it is.

This is not prosperity AlanB. You don't get away with that one.

Not discounting out either, our once self sufficient industries sold off to the slave labourers in Asia, thus rendering our economies into one of subservience, in other words a mishmash of service industries hitch immediatly evaporates under the heat of reality, such as now upon us.

Dan

A great article, providing a most illuminating perspective on progress leading to our current sad, and highly challenging and dysfunctional, state of global affairs. Well done. But?

One problem. The unraveling masterpiece raced along with a great head of steam - only to come to an abrupt halt in mid-stride! Where are the answers to this (and our) global predicament? What are the solutions?

Alan B has put forward some good ideas, and maybe Dan's correctly identified failures in Aus' road to growth at any cost - such as "our once self sufficient industries sold off to the slave labourers in Asia" - may at least in part be addressed and corrected through Alan's direct approach to a restoration of self-sufficiency and self-reliance in Aus.

One suggestion though, Alan, please, we must keep Lake Eyre and precincts fresh water - using surpluses from the Northern wet season to flood your canal(s) and charge the Lake. To use salt water would not only wreak untold destruction on this inland ecosystem but fundamentally preclude the advantages of masses of fresh water for use in developing an astronomical inland agricultural Eden - with coincidental countering of part of Aus' climate-harmful emissions. Solar farms reaching to the horizon, state of the art greenhouses in abundance, inland rail bringing processed city waste to be used for fertilizer and/or combustion, and, in due course, villages, parks, swimming pools and some lucky folk just so happy to live away from the city turmoil.

Alan can see his Thorium reactors coming to life, the VLT running straight as a die from horizon to horizon, and scattered industrial parks building Eco-transportation, home-robots, shoes, clothing, building materials and everything any burgeoning city folk might need.
Magic.

We certainly have the job ahead of us. So, when do we start!
(Covid notwithstanding.)

Yes local production would be wonderful, but it could only happen with much lower living standards.

In the mid 60s I was the technical service rep for the leading plastics raw material supplier in Australia. We supplied almost all the appliance manufacturers in Oz. I Sydney alone I supplied 7 TV & radio manufacturers, 6 refrigerator manufacturers 6 washing machine manufacturers, & a dozen contract custom plastic moulding companies supplying parts to the automotive industry. There were dozens more manufacturing things like kitchen appliances hair driers & the like.

These factories employed 10s of thousands of people, but required high import duties to keep them competitive even back then, & this came at a price.

Some will remember small black & white TVs cost over a months wages, a small car a years earning & a fridge a couple of months wages. High import duties could see us do it again, but are the public prepared to pay the price of goods produced using our high cost base? Could the many who live hand to mouth today survive with the increased cost of everything they buy?

Simple solution,
Anything not produced here attracts import Duty, anything produced here does not ! That should get the manufacturing ball rolling again here, we just need to keep the unions at bay.
With all the former car plants lying idle we could start a small, cheap, no-nonsense car industry in no time.
Coupled with a non-military National Service & a cut in Public Service bureaucrat salaries & a flat tax it can be achieved with no economic sacrificial pain.

Interesting article. It appears that Peter McMahon (not that he was the only author here) has a few articles that might be worth perusing despite being a member of the swamp that is the Australian Education System. Though he does come from a university named after Sir Walter Murdoch. If I am correct in my hasty estimation it appears that- Murdoch University may indeed "be a good one".

Interesting point Hasbeen- "Yes local production would be wonderful, but it could only happen with much lower living standards."

Answer-

I believe this issue of lower living standards could be largely avoided through higher quality durable products and intelligent management and improvisation. Of course there are always lazy people that object to any imposition on their immediate mercurial comforts.

In the Army they teach you to survive under a piece of plastic.

I admire my ancestors for their self sufficiency- it's pleasing to see during "the current incident" that people are re-discovering their self sufficiency. People for example appear to be spending more time learning to cook for themselves.

I'd like to see Australian artisan's from British stock- our children- pressing an Australian saucepan out of a sheet of Australian stainless steel and attaching a handle made from a Gum tree... as I look upon mine labelled "Made In China".

All the labels have Made In China now- soon we will be replaced too.

Population is the biggest issue in world problems.

It is the other way around individual, you have to have high duties on the things produced here, or local production will never compete with imported goods.

A simple example. We introduced to the world the chrome plated plastic tap handle. In the US then, now China, you had a 50 meter long production machine. You tipped die casting metal in at one end, copper nickle & chrome in the middle, & a chromed handle came out the other. All this controlled by one man at a computer. Cheap & simple with large volume to cover the set up cost.

In Oz we had 2 men needed to cast the handle, another to de-flash & polish the thing, a truck & driver to take them to the chrome plater, & bring them back. Hugely expensive in time & labour.

We introduced ABS engineering plastic to replace the die-cast metal & cut costs dramatically, as well as producing a corrosion free product. We were competitive until the US developed a 50 meter long machine using ABS instead of die-cast metal. We led the world in such innovation because of our high labour content & cost.

It can take a couple of days to get a machine set up & producing parts on size & quality. In the US/China large market the machine can run for a couple of months producing that part, in the Oz market, a couple of days. 4 days work for 2 days production does not make for competitive pricing.

Continued

Continued

Container shipping is the worst thing that ever happened to Oz industry. Our industry lost the added protection of high cost shipping. Shipping is almost cost free today. I could buy from Asia a shower head for $2.00, delivered to my store, complete with display packaging to our design. Here the cost of the brass to make the thing was over $4. While it cost a fortune to load & unload the stuff to ship it we could produce locally, after container efficiency, we could not compete.

It is cheaper to ship a new car from Asia to Oz on a roll on roll off ship, than ship it 100 kilometers in Oz.

Today the entire dash of your car is ABS plastic, but it cost heaps to develop that application. I spent months working with the 2 companies in Sydney that developed the first ABS instrument panel for Holden. There was a baking requirement with high heat, & the inside of a locked car gets very hot. Those companies had hundreds of engineering hours getting those parts right & dimensionally stable at high heat. In Oz they had only 30,000 unit orders to spread that cost, not the half a million of larger production in large markets, which then benefited from our development work.

Much as I would love to see it, these few examples show how getting manufacturing up again in Oz is going to be a very difficult, unless we start spending the money wasted on so called renewable power generation on subsidising industry rather than Don Quixote alternate power operations. The big question is should we do it, & how much would it cost the many to employ the few.

Hasbeen said "It is cheaper to ship a new car from Asia to Oz on a roll on roll off ship, than ship it 100 kilometers in Oz. "

Yes that's correct. I always thought that you could have roll on roll off trains and double height containers if we designed trains differently. If you put the dealerships near the transport this would cut down on the labour. Process redesign is always a factor in business modelling. Given Australia is a small nation without the large economies of scale we need to find niche industries such as those without transport costs such as software development and information products. Some products such as cars and mobile phones may be just unsuitable for the Australian production environment- Ricardo had views on this- sometimes it's a matter of doing things differently. Some time ago there were kit cars that could be built on chassis of standardized dimensions from cheap mass produced components. 3D printing was seen as a way of democratizing manufacturing. I see many inefficiencies when I see Australian manufacturing. I believe the pavement machine was invented in Australia- but yes other countries see the ideas and steal them for themselves. Some would argue that slaves always work better than free men- when we send our currency offshore the evil done to our children is terrible- it's better that we teach them to support their own communities- rather than seeking individuality through consumption. I would like to see Australian's develop rapid retooling technologies to provide short run high quality products for low cost- this would have both a short and long term benefits for Australia. In the US there is low red tape where as in Australia we have high red tape- this is a recipe for failure for a small country. Australia has the potential to provide for the world's rocketry industry- but there are always geopolitical factors.

Everyone needs allies ours traditionally have been Britain, the US, sometimes Europe- these countries support each other for mutual benefit- Globalization is a race to the bottom- and devaluation of humanity- evil.

Talk about waste of money in Australia, the top bureaucrats salaries, exorbitant costs for menial tasks, massive undeserved welfare, Govt taxes etc,
If we could lower the salaries & freeze the medium wage we could afford to reduce Govt taxes, particularly the insanely priced car/vehicle registrations.
Welfare could be largely paying for itself if it were in the form of a non-military service.
Our daily cost of living is artificially high merely to profit a handful of top bureaucrats.
There's an application for a new silica mine in Nth Qld by a Chinese company. Why the hell can't we have an Australian outfit mining & exporting ??
Why don't the Govt & the Opposition put their heads together & support an Australian company to do that ?
The Qld Govt's legislation of no more Qld Port developments puts a huge region adjacent to the GBR & residential areas at risk. Overrule this legislation & put a loading facility in the mining area where it has zilch environmental impact ?
The dust from the sand would blow back to where it was mined instead of over peoples homes !
This mine would be a perfect opportunity to restart Australian owned & run industry in Australia !
What say ye ?

Sometimes Australia may not be able to be as agile as other countries and needs to look longer term, use cheaper, less complex, more durable products with interchangeable parts to reduce costs.

How often does the typical household need to churn through their products could these products be designed differently- reducing the amount of waste.

There's a great website somewhere that costs and gives a replacement lifetime of all the elements of a typical house. The consumer economy is designed to benefit those feeding it. If we took control and changed our borders with elements such as tariffs around certain industries then products would be designed differently.

The government has a role in this- so do the people- and the companies within Australia.

When a company sets a certain dress code at work- for example- they are "unwittingly" creating a barrier to entry- ie. a border.

All of the institutions have a role in this- the media, government, councils, bureaucracy, businesses, etc...

Too many have had it too undeservedly good in Australia at the expense of everyday Citizens & I just hope that the COVID-19 situation has done enough to wake the crooks to stop cooking the books.
Govt bureaucrats need to made accountable as of right now !! Close the loopholes, get rid of negative gearing, introduce flat tax for wage earners & a flat tax for companies local AND foreign operating in this Nation !

Individual said- "There's an application for a new silica mine in Nth Qld by a Chinese company. Why the hell can't we have an Australian outfit mining & exporting ??"

Answer-

This is an interesting point.

A quick Wikipedia search says... About 95% of the commercial use of silicon dioxide (sand) occurs in the construction industry, e.g. for the production of concrete (Portland cement concrete).

Why does China want the silica?

I don't see China as exporting concrete products perhaps they need it for construction in China or their geopolitical development activities in other places such as Africa and South East Asia.

How does Australia benefit primarily?

Historically Australia has sold natural resources sometimes up to 30% of GDP. This tends to be a low value added activity with limited creative input. If Australia has control over key resources they should use this control/ power to create high value finished goods. Probably in situ where practical.

Notice foreign entities buying up resources and resource processing capacity more and more.

Indian steel magnate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi_Mittal

http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-8163-indian-steel-magnate-named-britains-richest-man

Any country has resource security considerations while not every internal requirement for a resource can be satisfied internally there should be an effort to source internally where possible- but as Hasbeen has said there are factors such as transportation costs that are critical to practicality. This leads me to think that Australian controlled local shipping routes from Melbourne to Brisbane and perhaps to South East Asia could be used to insulate Australia from geopolitical transport effects and protect our production capacity.

Canem Malum,
fyi

2A1122248_DRX.pdf

https://www.diatreme.com.au
Canem Malum,
try this

I remember someone was saying that better container handling capabilities would also go a long way to making Australian ports more efficient- there are some union issues here. Singapore is a good example of close integration between ports and rail in the modern era- Germany and Britain in history also had effective transportation - and Australia doesn't have the same problems of land scarcity- Singapore has an advantage of being in a key geographical location- not so far away from the Port of Darwin (which China has interest in).

Some articles on the geopolitics of logistics-

http://mir-initiative.com/projects/white-book/vladimir-yakunin/the-geopolitics-of-transportation.html

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692319303783

http://www.generixgroup.com/en/blog/geopolitical-affairs-supply-chain

In business one issue that comes up is the ability to throw money at a project. For smaller countries this access to capital can be used to starve smaller competitors- it seems in this context that it's important to negotiate with small neighbours for mutual interest- often at the risk of upsetting the larger countries. This doesn't mean that smaller countries should take bigger capital risks. Some places use special trade zoning and policies- Singapore's internal and external economies are treated differently.

In many cases train cargo is more cost effective than passenger transport.

Internal logistics through Australia Post appears to have had an impact on internal business where as international postal agreements appears to be enabling asymmetric Chinese advantage.

To Individual- Yes this looks interesting. Seems that they are saying that there is premium silica at some of the sites suitable for high end glass and solar panels.

We should perhaps be making the solar panels in these Australian regional areas and selling the panels to Asia. This would provide numerous jobs to regional areas and they could be shipped from nearby ports.

We should be looking at perhaps making high end glass products- maybe fibre optic cable.

Foundry silica could perhaps be used to create world class steel products for specialist applications.

We should use our natural resources to build the products where possible- rather than just selling the natural resources

We should use our natural resources to build the products where possible- rather than just selling the natural resources
Canem Malum,
That's precisely my argument. One would think Fed & State Govt would bend back over forward to support an Australian Company to establish industry here. Why don't we hear of that happening ?
Is the Australian Psyche such that the wait for massive profit is unbearable for most ? At least that's my perception !
On the other hand Australian Authorities have a tendency to put up hurdles at 5-times the cost of bridges ! It sounds ok to say that foreign investors can't take it with them. That's correct but what China will do is take over the land by way of Debt recovery & that's the real problem here.
Once they have a foothold here, there'll be no stopping them. WAKE UP AUSTRALIANS AND AUSTRALIAN GOVT !

Individual said- "One would think Fed & State Govt would bend back over forward to support an Australian Company to establish industry here. Why don't we hear of that happening ?"

My understanding of these things is not as good as Hasbeen.

Business relies on three components- skills, resources, money- there are others but I'll keep it simple. Getting money can be challenging- so can getting skills- especially in a competitive market. Also good silicon is not the only resource requirement.

Skills include technical and management expertise as well as logistics , negotiating capabilities and of course buyers of your products.

Buyers- China and the US are both fierce negotiators- and Australia is unlikely to be able to supply at the required scale and if we can it could be very risky. You could try approaching smaller US businesses and supply them on a competitive basis. You would need some sympathetic supporters in the US. Of course the larger suppliers would fight to stop another competitor entering the market.

Sounds like some careful tactics would need to be employed.
You can use joint partnerships in these situations, but the larger partner usually gets the lions share of the profits. Still I believe that we can supply to the Australian market and use this to slowly build capacity in other regions.

Short term gains are more easily funded perhaps but at the expense of the future.

Short term gains are more easily funded perhaps but at the expense of the future.
Canem Malum,
That & the lack of patience for profits appear to be the crucial points in business here. I wonder how much longer it'll be before businesses here realise that continuing past failed practises is no longer the way forward !

Watching a movie starring Sean Connery just now, a Japanese Company Director said 'If you don't want the Japanese to buy iy, don't sell it" !
Doesn't get any clearer than this !

To Individual- I think we are pretty much on the same page on this issue. And I think Hasbeen would be too- but he has seen a lot of failures- and he has probably had a personal stake in some of these. I respect his experience enormously- I feel somewhat inadequate here- but I can't give up on our future.

It's good to go back to the initial statement of the article here..."The worst of the problems that beset the world currently are essentially due to one cause: a shift in the basic ways of civilization from national to global scale."

I like your movie quote.

I often come back to the idea of the traditional parish or village community and think that perhaps we had in some sense more freedom in these traditional villages than we do now- despite our supposed enlightenment. Mass culture by it's nature is repressive and Liberalism despite it's claims is a mass repressive culture.

Going with your movie theme... Sadly as in the Charlton Heston movie Soylent Green- too many people and not enough food required eating people- Liberalism is destroying the people it claims to represent- people need traditions- sadly the more "Mill" freedom we have the more people we have, the more waste we have- the more a mass totalitarian culture is justified. Ironically economic freedom could be the biggest repressor.

In many cases Australia doesn't need other countries- we can look after ourselves and those in our immediate sphere and be self sufficient and independent and strong and free of the influence of others.

If other countries want something we can provide we can come to an arrangement on terms that suit both of us

In security affairs we look to our kin and "others like us" in concentric circles try to negotiate with our enemies knowing that on some things we will never agree without struggle. Hopefully we can find a way to stay out of each others way. If we have to go to war to protect our way of life then it is our duty to fight courageously for our ancestors and our descendants.

Totalitarianism is a powerful monolithic force- but would you want to live on in such a world- even if you could. Sometimes such as in a military unit dictatorship is necessary to overcome an even greater evil.

On another point-

I was reading about 2nd and 3rd generation solar panels (thin film and organic polymer) that don't need silica- still in development and are of lower efficiency. There is some research going on with Fullerene C60 at Aussie Uni's- sadly and surely- soon to be offshored.

Hasbeen said something about a lot of research being done at Aussie Uni's only to be offshored at the profit stage. So much for open research principles.

Anyway I agree with you point "if you don't want Japan to buy it- don't sell it" and it's application to China- If we don't support China's geo-political activities then we shouldn't sell to them (and enable China Geo-Politics)- but you can be sure many communists in Australia do.

Canem Malum,
I think that unfortunate Australian trait of a 'quick buck' is what stifles any attempts by people not caught up in in that mentality. Of course it's not an Australian only mentality but here it is dominated by its own people.
There appears to be a greater focus on exploitation than grasping genuine opportunities.
Even Govt incentives designed for people in need are invariably hijacked & exploited by some which invariably brings around the failure & collapse of the scheme.
The 'fair Go' catch-cry is something that's constantly proclaimed but hardly practised.
Whatever could be described as Australian has all been killed off by 'successful' multiculturalism ! By people whose allegiance is not to this Nation !

To Individual-

I suspect that the view of the insidious immigrant may just be the correct one- history is a list of these battles- the diplomat at court is really just a spy with their own interest. You can really only relate to people that are like you- some cooperation is really coercion- it's all relative- excuse the pun.

As to Australian's- fear does interesting things to people (hence the quick buck)- there are dangers but- they need to be reminded- the greatest fear is fear itself.

Modern government is a blunt instrument- you can't expect it to exercise finesse.

Individual on many issues we have had different views- as is indicated by dialogue on other threads- but I've enjoyed this discussion. Thanks