"Ah Pelican, in years I am in my mid 50s. You might well be
younger in years, but perhaps not in mindset :)"

Definitely younger than you Yabs, you old baby boomer. My friends tell me I possess the impulsiveness of youth but you have scolded me. My heart is wounded.

Yabby, the trouble is that you cannot buy Australian tomatoes anymore. Well you certainly cannot in my supermarket anyway and tomato paste is all imported. The consumer cannot make any impact on the "Buy Australian" campaign if there are no Australian choices.

You missed my point about the fact that the homebrand product now made in China was not cheaper than the original product made in Australia. One assumes the costs of production are cheaper so where is the extra profit going? Not to the benefit of the consumer. Can you see where this argument is going Yabby in relation to protectionism. If the results are the same what are the benefits of no tariffs for ordinary people? I know the theory but what about the reality!

More and more of our icons are being bought out by foreign owned companies and even if some still opt to buy the Australian produce many others are not.

I went to the fruit/veg shop the other day to buy garlic - only Argentinian or Eastern European to choose from. There are many more examples I could bore you with.

Aldi is good, while they stock the imports, they also provide products that directly benefit Australian growers or are Australian owned.

There has to be a way we can protect our industry and ensure competition is healthy for the sake of the consumer.

Yabby,

Please! Do some research into marketing techniques they're all about perceptions. Having owned a current model RR once albeit by odd circumstances I can tell you They are marketed on IMAGE they still break down etc. Quality is still in the eye of the beholder.
my family had a locally owned fridge and freezer after 30year I retired them because they weren't green enough. The local brew shop prop uses both. the issue is different it's called planned obsolesence another marketing tool to sell more.
You insist on extremes for comparisons. Think out of the box.

Much of my executive career was in Computers so I know the pricing shenanigans that goes on.I see no problem with having an overseas manufacturer set up here even if they repatriate some profits o/s.

Take our subs (please) the torpedoes are from o/s and on an 18 month delay. Tell me that would help us in a crisis?
Being just a market simply sendall of our $ o/s and makes us vulnerable. I am advocating only discressionary goods from o/s.
We need a strategic industry minister.

*Yabby, the trouble is that you cannot buy Australian tomatoes anymore. Well you certainly cannot in my supermarket anyway and tomato paste is all imported. *

Pelican, well if you shop at Aldi, your product range will be
very limited. I only shop at Australian owned stores.

I will check out the tomatoe paste next time I go shopping,
but I just had a look in my pantry. Canned tomatoes, tomatoe
sauce, spagetti sauce, all made in Australia, bought at Coles.

*You missed my point about the fact that the homebrand product now made in China was not cheaper*

I never missed your point, its just that the explanation is a bit
long winded and there are post limits. Supermarkets see the big
picture, not the little picture. They spend lots of time checking
out one anothers prices and trying to be 5c cheaper. So they make
good profits on some lines, break even on others and lose on some.
Main thing is their profit on total turnover is ok. Fact is
that in real terms, food prices have dropped considerably over the
last 30 years, to the benefit of consumers.

*More and more of our icons are being bought out by foreign owned companies*

Blame your super funds for forcing CEOs to flog em off cheap.
When Pacific Dunlop owned a whole string of brands, like Birds Eye,
a long list actually, they were virtually forced to sell off to
multi nationals.

Which comes back to the point that I raise so often. Super fund
managers should be held accountable for their actions, for they
hold huge power and are seemingly hardly accountable to their
owners, the people with super fund investments.

CEOs dance to their tune, as they have the huge money behind them,
to make or break a company and to have any CEO fired.

There is a farm in Esperance that grows garlic. They get around
25 bucks a kg for it and can't grow enough, so clearly there
is a market there, for anyone who wants to grow it.

*Think out of the box.*

ROFL Examinator ! For the last 30 years or so, just about any serious
money that I have made, has been through innovation and lateral
thinking. Now you want to preach to me. What would you like to know? :)

*Having owned a current model RR once*

We could argue about RR quality, I normally judge RR drivers as
pretentious snobs. Fact is that many people will pay for status,
its a huge money spinner. Think Rolex watches, Hermes handbags,
the fashion industry etc. The largest market today for status
goods, is in fact in China. Of course RRs break down. Anyone who
thinks that they don't, is a fool.

That does not divert from the fact that there is a huge difference
in the quality of goods produced. Some want cheap, some want value
for money, some want status. This is all marketing 101 stuff, you
should know it.

*the issue is different it's called planned obsolesence another marketing tool to sell more.*

Often its also cutting costs, in order to be the cheapest. The
Japanese learnt the hard way. 30 years ago, anything Japanese
was called "Jap crap". Today they lead in innovation, its
"Chinese crap" that is the problem.

*I see no problem with having an overseas manufacturer set up here even if they repatriate some profits o/s.*

I see no problem either, as long as they don't want to hide behind
some Aussie tariff wall and force consumers to pay through the nose
for their computers. Put simply, there is no good reason why any
computer manufacturer would want to set up in Australia, so they
won't. Fair enough, its best that we import them, export what we are
good at doing. Consumers are the winners.

*Take our subs (please) the torpedoes are from o/s and on an 18 month delay.*

All that shows, is how useless our military are at organising their
supply chain. These days, nothing on earth is more then 24 hours
away by aircraft

Yabby

Just a quick observation regarding cheap(er) products whether made here or overseas.

Built-in Obsolescence is a major factor preventing a move towards a sustainable and equitable economy. It is wasteful and reliant on the producemore-buy more treadmill. I do not have a very high income, but will buy quality where I can because it lasts longer. For example, I have recycled my old PC by installing a free OS. I maintain the physical components by keeping them clear of dust.

You a still in favour of 'business-as-usual' - obtaining the maximum profit for the least effort - this is not thinking laterally at all. In fact all you have offered are excuses thinly disguised as change which will still prop up the status quo. As Examinator has opined what is needed is a complete paradigm shift - a bottom up economy, where farmers, small business can compete in an even playing field. At present the economy is run by and for the extremely wealthy few.

In the case of Pacific Dunlop if a large business wishes to move its operation to another country, then compensation to the retrenched employees needs to be paid in the form of retraining and income support till they regain alternative jobs. That is equitable.

There is no easy single solution, however, continuing as we have been is wasteful and ultimately unsupportable. There will come a time when third world workers will be demanding first world conditions - what will the global monopolies do for cheap labour then?

Better to start to change now, set-up infrastructure that is sustainable, till now business has worked on short term profit. We simply cannot support that any more.

There is no SINGLE easy answer, but we have a slim opportunity right now to start to change.

"There will come a time when third world workers will be demanding first world conditions - what will the global monopolies do for cheap labour then?"

Fractelle,

At the risk of stealing Yabby's thunder, the very fact third world workers would start demanding more means that the power balance will have already begun to shift. Once such an event happens, the global monopolies, at least as we've known them, will begin to die.

To paraphrase Yabby, the ordinary population has a lot of power by weight of its numbers. Once it starts acting and acting independently, it becomes a force all of its own. The boot will then be on the other foot.