"Nurses were valued, respected and given better working conditions."
Very true Brightspark and I'll say it again. There's no shortage of nurses......but I'll add a little more that I should have added in a previous post and didn't due to word constraint.......there's simply a shortage of nurses who WANT to work under sometimes terrible conditions.

I don't know anything about the meatwork industry, but I do know about nursing. I also know of two domestic staff members who work in my section who were once nurses, but grew tired of the way nursing was going, let their registration lapse, then joined the domestic staff. They find cleaning and preparing meals preferable to washing dirty backsides, dodging angry drunks (A&E), being abused by client's parents, family and anyone else who might decide to join in. Then comes the paperwork. More and more each year simply so as to convince the Government of the day that the clients in your care are worthy of receiving the paltry sum needed for their care. Next comes Workchoices. When first announced, morale dropped considerably in my area of nursing. Some of the people I work with in our specialised field have been in the job 20 & 30 years. Fortunately, the Brack's Government has decided to keep things as they are concerning conditions and wages, but what happens next election should a Liberal Government take power, which I would say is most likely. I might add that those ex nurses who are now domestics, are receiving just $1.95 per hour than I'm getting as a registered nurse. Work that one out! No wonder young people won't tackle nursing as a career.

Yup, the world has changed Brightspark, but I doubt that you
will put the genie back in the bottle, for its a global
change, not just an Australian one.

Govt by overregulation won't work today, as it never has.
If you overtax capital, it will go offshore, if you overtax
high wage earners, they will do the same and you'll lose
your brightest and best.

If you try to susidise inefficient manufacturing, somebody
has to pay, so standard of living drops, those industries
that could be competitive, become less so, etc. The
old labour job creation schemes solved nothing, they
are short term band aids, no more.

What has changed is peoples expectations. In the 60s,
people had a fibro house, a holden in the driveway and
not much more. No plasma screens, internets, ipods,
mobile phones, etc. Today people expect these things.
Last year alone, 8 million new mobile phones were sold.

The cost of medicine has risen through technology.
Hip replacement operations, open heart surgey etc,
which are hugely expensive, are seen as the norm these
days, available to anyone.

In the 60s, you never had the huge welfare network that
you have today. Last I looked Govt spends about 90 billion
a year on it. People realised they had to work, if they
wanted to eat. Today working is basically optional.

So its ok to lament about the past, as we remember the
good things and forget the not so good things. Today's
kids have far more opportunities then kids in the 60s
ever had, they just have to get off their butts to
make things happen. But then our expectations have
changed. Many expect Govts now to wrap us in nappies
and solve everything for us. Too many Aussies have
become softies. I blame the parents, for bringing
up kids, often with little discipline, just give
them more money. How can those kids ever learn the
values that the last generation had?

Yabby, I agree with most of your last post, all except the part about work being "optional." Obviously, you haven't had to go onto Newstart (dole by another name) lately? People under 50 have to go through a most horrible set of Centrelink "hoops" simply to get on the books. After that, it's all work diaries, training schemes, work for the dole etc, etc. It's damned hard and nobody would take it as an option. I've seen the results in psychiatric units where young people have been driven to attempt to take their own lives because of what Centrelink has put them through. That's a shocking endorsement of the Government's welfare system.
And yes, it's true that back in the 60's, people had to work to get on, but there were plenty of labouring jobs around. It's successive Government policy that's driven jobs off shore, Government policy that means women can't afford to stay at home and crowd the dole cues. It's Government policy that's locked us into their ridiculous policy of growth and wealth creation, but as you well know, the answer lurks just around the corner. Nature will correct the imbalance soon enough with climate change, or peak oil and most likely a combination of both.

Yabby I would make the following points.

All this may be great, …. if it were sustainable!

The world has been globalised for over 100 years our shops have had products from all over the world since around 1880, its not new!
The plasma screens and phones you talk of are actually much cheaper than AM radios were in 1920. The price of one radio could get you a complete set (plasma screen phone the lot). We came much closer to paying our own way then.
This cheap electronics is giving an illusion of prosperity just as a heroin shot gives such an illusion to a drug addict.

You have missed my point!

I am not pining for the good old days. For things are probably better for me personally but for how long?

I am disgusted by government mismanagement of which most people are unaware and for which most party hacks (Liberal and Labor) are ignorant apologists.

The current situation cannot continue as we are borrowing year after year. (For the last 32 years to be exact.)

We are one of a very few country’s in the world that continually borrows and never actual makes any nett repayments even needing to borrow to make interest repayments every year.

Anyone who thinks that this can continue is living in a fools paradise or just plain stupid.

On government regulation; we are now dependent on the regulations and market and currency manipulations of Communist China. (Eg. exchange rate gives Skilled worker Australia $700 same worker in China $50). Could you tell me of a more controlled situation?

We have more Australian government control on individuals not less. Less government regulations and control on corporations of course.

Trade protection benefits the workers of most other countries and shackles their “Melbourne Establishments”.

Our unilateral “Free Trading” is like making blood donations to the vampire’s blood bank. Hurting the most vulnerable while reducing our technological capability to below that of a third world country.

Many people are hurting right now, I care.

I fear for the future . Look at the big picture.