there is a simple cure for most of our problems, it's called democracy. ozzies don't want to know about it, it requires active participation from at least a large minority of the electorate. if you're raised in a wheelchair, you don't think you can get up and walk and that is probably the case.

so ozzies will turn to the sport pages, or the celebrity mags, and complain when things go wrong, but never ever demand direct elections, citizen initiative, or open administration of public affairs. the limit of their hopes is a 'firm but fair' favorite uncle for a prime minister.

unfortunately, climbing the political ladder requires moral qualities that would get you disqualified from the east l. a. pimps union- they have higher standards than pollies can afford. so there won't be any philosopher kings at the helm, and the tooth fairy is confined to the under-8's. what you're going to get is big brother: surveillance cameras, databanks on every resident, house arrest for political whingeing, 'disappearance' for active protest, and relentless lieing from the media in support of government policy. can't happen here? it is, already.

so what's going to happen with the schools, hospitals, roads, and environment? more of the same from tweedledee as from tweedledum, except dee is likely to have less resources. the quality of life can only fall so long as the economy is built on looting nature while increasing population

you wouldn't elect dee if he was suddenly afflicted with truth telling, if he reported the consequences of selling the farm overseas with it's consequent export of investment finance, you'd vote for dum again. there will always be a 'dum' to tell you convenient lies, and a nation of stooges will swallow them.

so never complain about the quality of oz pollies- they're as good as you deserve.

"That figure includes coffee serving, waiting on tables and many other services that we could each provide for ourselves,"

Foyle, hang on, whoah. Of course services are part of the economy.
Tourism is a huge industry. Are you expecting tourists to cook
their own dinners? Of course not.

We've been down the tariff path and landed up with a fat, lazy,
complacent manufacturing industry, which took from the poor and
gave to the rich, hanging out at the Melbourne club.

As an exporter, all those tariffs increased my costs, making my
products less competitive on world markets. Many Australians have
to compete globally, why can't the rest of you?

The real problem is that a whole generation have never known
bad times, so don't have the foggiest about putting something away
for a rainy day. They want it all and they want it now. The
thing that has changed most is peoples expectations. In the 60-70s,
people wanted a 3 by 1 house and a Holden. Now they want a McMansion,
with everything that opens and shuts, 2 cars in the driveway.

Australians have become alot richer, but have also thrown caution
to the wind. Those plasma screens are walking out the door at
Harvey Norman's.

If the Australian $ lands up going down as the US$ is going down,
so be it. I just can't see that happening in the short term,
unfortunately.

Yabby, I'd argue that we've been down the "let's just slap great big tarriffs on all imported goods and leave them there" path, which was, no doubt, a big mistake. It is not correct to therefore conclude that tarriffs are never justified. Carefully targetted tarriffs to address specific imbalances, with clearly set expiration schedules, can and do serve a useful purpose.

My wife and I are constantly frustrated how hard it is to find Australian-made goods (other family and friends concur). We're quite prepared to pay more for it, but because retailers seem to think they'll do better by selling more and more of the cheapest stuff possible that they can get from China. Hence there's not even the possibility of a new Australian manufacturer even getting off the ground these days. Maybe tarriffs aren't the best solution, but I'm open for better ones.
We still live in too uncertain and unbalanced a world for it to make long term economic sense to be utterly reliant on overseas manufacturers - global trade has collapsed before (in the 1930's depression). We're a big enough and rich enough country that we should at least be able to manufacture the basics for ourselves.

"My wife and I are constantly frustrated how hard it is to find Australian-made goods"

Nic, the point remains that Australia, with only 20 million,
is still a piddlefart economy. Fact is that we cannot make
everything, let alone do it well.

I am sure that you are not alone in your quest for Aussie
made goods. Yet we all know that manufacture is only a small
part of any product, distribution is a huge cost. As Westfield
have shown, its far more profitable to build shopping centres
where people flock, then to manufacture anything.

The internet provides new opportunities for consumers and
producers linking up together, to cut out the many middle men.
So perhaps you can find some of the goods that you seek online,
or perhaps they are just not made here, as consumers have
decided to buy imports, as they vote with their wallets.

Its virtually impossible in today's economy, to decide as to
what is critical and what is not. The cow may be willing to
donate her milk, the farmer willing to milk her and sell it.
The milk manufacturer might be willing to onsell it, but if the
the bottle plant which makes the bottles breaks down and is
made in France, without spare parts from France, the whole
thing comes to a stop. So are parts for milk bottle machines
critical, so should be manufactured here? The list goes on..

(...making no apologies for skirting suffocating posting limits!)

Yabby, if for some reason we were unable to purchase bottle-top-making machines from France for 5 years, we would make do without too much inconvenience. On the other hand, if we were unable to purchase any bottled drinks from overseas for 5 years we'd be quite seriously affected. I'm certainly not suggesting that Australia needs to become anywhere near self-sufficient, though I dispute that 21 million isn't a big enough population to sustain a self-sufficient economy (accepting it would be a somewhat less technically advanced economy - plenty of much smaller economies have far more robust manufacturing sectors). It doesn't bother me particularly that we don't manufacture plasma TVs here, but it does bother me that we no longer manufacture basic items like children's clothing, fridges, kitchenware, toilet bowls, bicycles, etc., without any of which we would be truly be forced back to a rudimentary sort of existence.

I don't see why distribution is an issue - 10 or 15 years ago you could walk into David Jones and buy a toddler's outfit made in Australia. What's changed since then?

For anyone that has done Economics 101, one of the signs of a growth economy is that huge investment is made in machinery and equipment which generally leads to a increased foreign debt.

By any recognised economic measure the Australian economy is one of the most robust in the world. The article tries to fly in the face of reason by poking a stick at some of the anomolies that arise with strong growth.

This article is not based on economics, but probably more on numerology. What's next? "is the earth really round?"