Its timely to start a debate about whether the costs of increased GDP are beneficial to most people.
Sydneysiders expect add 12 minutes to their commute times, when they work for another 21 minutes a week.
Melbourne squeezes 25% more commuters into half the space they occupied 30 years ago, esp Elizabeth St underpass. Travel through the loop adds 15 minutes to a train trip. Tram trips take longer because passengers have to squeeze past people lolling in doorways.
Although there is a growth in jobs, in the main they are part time, lowly paid jobs that don't provide a living wage - so do we need to import shop assistants to be paid insufficient income to live on.
When I finished university, I was paid a decent wage in my first job, all before I turned 21. Today 60% university graduates will undertake a cocktail of part time jobs before they land a permanent position at age 28.

Great article Richard

Yes, Costello is akin to the antichrist. He is so extraordinarily narrowly focussed and misguided.

Of course Howard is just as bad.

“…it is surely extraordinary that the government admits to having built an economic house of cards so fragile that the smallest breeze of adversity would bring it crashing down.”

Absolutely.

So we are now in the position where we just cannot adjust our “racing-car economy” to any significant extent in order to direct it towards sustainability, without triggering rising inflation and unemployment.

Costello and Howard have hooked us into an antisustainable momentum, right at the point in out history that we desperately needed good leadership that would have taken us off the insane continuous growth path and onto one with a stable and sustainable base.

This was obvious at the start of Howard’s reign in 1996 and just became progressively more obvious.

There is no excuse.

Conservatives appear to believe we should flog off resources as quickly as possible because new ones will reveal themselves. However 'oils ain't oils' and the next round of resources could be much more expensive to extract; for example cutting down old growth forest now instead of waiting decades for plantation timber. The UK provides a striking example as it will now import natural gas from Russia when it was once self sufficient through North Sea reserves.

Apart from resources running out there is the issue of co-dependence. If the Asian economies falter they will take Australia with them. The resources boom is like a monster we can't stop feeding. If the monster loses its appetite there is no backup plan.

On Saturday night I was at a 21st birthday party. The party girl was a uni student and so were most of the guests. Whereas, in the past, I might have expected heated discussions about the current war, the environment or a hot issue---say Howard's move to clean up some communities---the talk was mostly centered around things: ipods, phones, cameras, music downloads. There is a plethora of TV shows which are basically advertisements (Better Homes and Gardens etc). Everyone seems to what houses several sizes too large. Is this really the post-materialist age or is it that we'd prefer more stuff provided we could work less? Thus we'd be happy.

Having written that, I do agree with the article with respect to the economy. The level of growth in leverage we now see is unsustainable and when it drops that 1990's 'recession we had to have' will look oh so benign.

Its good to come across an article which articulates one's own ideas, concerns, hopes and angers so precisely. Thank you Richard! I'm now 76 and am more apprehensive about the state of our world than at any previous time. Is there stability and sane government anywhere - except perhaps in Scandinavia and even there the bear is stirring?

Yep. We are definitely driving at speed in the wrong direction. Where did Howard miss his turn? Was it the wrong road map he used when he entered politics. Howard has never had a splendid vision of helping Australians to build better quality and more balanced lives within a cohesive society.

Our legacy is that we are now amongst the most obese and depressed people in the world. Too many long hours spent in sedentary jobs or in grid lock traffic, bad consumption and exercise habits are part of the reason. The PM's preoccupation has been to appeal to our patriotism, greed and fear. Time and again, he plays with base emotions to maintain his hold on power.

Howard's special elixir for the good life can be found within his Federal Budgets. Typically the biggest tax cuts go to the richest Australians so that their investment spending may trickle down to provide more jobs for 'ordinary Australians.' The disparity in wealth is obscene and getting worse every year.

High tech US military weapons are always a high priority, even if they are lemons or still on the drawing board with elastic delivery times and budgets.

To help swallow Howard's elixir he needs help. Nelson, Abbott and Costello are not believable anymore. So why not give Packer and Stokes tens of millions for propaganda commercials?

The voice-over person on the ad can tell us simple folk in a very serious deep voice about the things our dear leader thinks that we, as good patriotic, Allah-fearing citizens and members of the great alliance should believe, like him, to make us a healthier, safer and prosperous country.

As we approach the 2007 federal election, is it too much to hope that we'll get a glimpse of some real alternative visions for our future? Howard's elixer tastes and smells to me like snake-oil that will deliver us to God knows where.