Yabby, I do hope that in your reply post to me, you're not assuming I'm a city type? Certainly not. I live in a rural bush setting where I grow quite a lot of my own food needs. I wouldn't say I'm a strict vegetarian, but I live well enough without meat on most days. I travel to my part time position in a car that's 16 years old and wouldn't part with it in a fit. It has no junky computer or fuel injection to pack it in and cost me a fortune and regularly returns 31-32 miles to the gallon. (Yes, showing my age there, lol). I come from a farming background and follow the interests of the farming community where I still have many friends in the Western district. I hate the fact that consumer products have such a short life span. As a world wide community, we should be attempting to reverse that trend and make items and goods that can once again be repaired in "dad's workshop." If we had any sense of global pride at all, we should refuse to buy such rubbish. Yes, you're right of course, we do have "choice" but few people will spend the money on the right choice. Most people blindly follow everyone else down the path of cheap consumerism which can only end in disaster. It's already rearing it's ugly head in the form of climate change and limiting supplies of cheap crude oil.

Part 2
What we're doing each and every time we buy another cheap and unnecessary consumer "toy" is rob our children and their children of a future. I'm too old to have to deal with resource shortages in my lifetime, but that doesn't mean I can forget about my grandchildren. I fear for them thanks to our obsession with ecconomic growth. At least I try to do my bit. I've downshifted considerably in the last 5 years. I'm attempting to make this place as sustainable as possible and putting any spare money I have into the project. I fix or get somebody else to fix anything that I can't and I try never to bring anything into the house that I can't reuse over and over again. Can you say the same Yabby? Yes, sometimes it's hard, especially since I lost my partner almost 3 years ago, but I struggle on regardless on my own and wake up feeling proud that I'm doing my bit against our consumer driven world.

Brightspark, I remind you that the Fed Govt has virtually no debt,
most of the debt we have is industry and consumer debt. Our trade
account is actually not so bad. But the current account includes
insurance, services, money going offshore from dividends etc.

So if you take a look at BHP and others, a large % of profits they
earn is sent offshore to overseas investors. Brightspark and other
Aussies are free to either buy those shares, or buy yet another plasma
screen. Fact is, Aussies are shocking savers, preferring to live it
up for today and bugger tomorrow. Our current account would look
quite different, if we were better savers.

Wildcat, I agree with much of what you say and in fact live a
"downsized" life myself. I tend to buy products that I can fix
and that last, even if they cost more. But I respect the rights of
others to make their own choices, its not my business to tell them
how to live their lives. Fact is, if iron ore is worth just a few
$ a tonne, it will be wasted until its far more expensive. The same
applies to oil. We humans have yet to learn to live sustainably
on this planet. Our population keeps growing at 80 million a year
for instance. So I am fully aware that whatever I do, is more about
a feelgood exercise for myself, then making a difference. Fact
is that if all Aussies were wiped out tomorrow, our present world
would replace our population in about 90 days. Sad but true.
But then reality does not go away, when we close our eyes and wish
it would.

Well Yabby, I can't find anything there to disagree with you about. Australians, or indeed, the rest of the "civilised" world will simply keep living it up and increasing their numbers until all of Earth's inhabitants are left with is destruction on an unprecedented scale. Maybe what I do is simply just a "feel good" exercise because nobody I know can understand why I shun the modern world. My kids certainly don't. It's full ahead "waste,waste,waste" for them and their families. I guess the best I can hope for is that I die in my sleep before the nightmare begins in earnest.

Wildcat, there is an economic theory, written some time ago, called
the "Tragedy of the Commons" I happen to think its extremely accurate
and tells us alot about the future of humanity. So its worth a read,
if you are interested in these matters.

So I think that people will need pain to learn and mother nature will
have to sort it all out in the end. We humans have been smart enough
to invent all kinds of amazing things, like me communicating with you
for instance, but we are not yet wise enough to use what was disovered,
in a sustainable manner. Everyone acts in their own
little patch of short term self interest, sadly.

As I cannot change some things, I've long ago learnt that I can't carry
the world's problems on my shoulders. Heaven is here and now,
so I live by my philosophies, but remember to enjoy ever day, for
heaven is here and now, its too late when the worms move in :)

Yabby, the declared reason for keeping the government debt low was that this would reduce liquidity and reduce the current account deficit. The current account deficit and associated debt has its main affect on the exchange rate and interest rates. Well this was the theory but events of the last 30 odd years have proven this theory wrong when the government debt is very low, our CA deficit is ballooning! Government debt has no affect!

We now have a run away current account deficit which must be borrowed. We are dependent on these borrowings for our economic growth. If our creditors realise that we are a bad risk we have a problem, or, perhaps they already realise that they have a problem. Our debt is around ½ trillion dollars!

Our balance of trade is also very bad, since 2000 I think we have only had 3 months with trade surpluses. Yes it is better than the CAD but still very, very bad. By the way the trade balance is for goods and services which includes insurance. The current account includes interest and dividend payments. The current account is the real bottom line and it’s been in red for 32+years!

We are going into debt (and trading in tomorrow for today) at the rate of just over 1 billion dollars per week in a minerals boom! This is a looming disaster, Paul Keating recently call it “the elephant under the carpet”.

We have great depression levels of unemployment!

“Free trading” is a nonsense it is not free or fair in any case.

I skilled yes skilled Chinese worker is paid around $A50 per week (at current exchange rates) you could not keep a slave in Australia for that. How can we “free trade” with that?

Who is the government looking after? Most likely the Melbourne establishment!

Long live Ekarnomic Groath, all hail the Cargoe Gods!

Ah Mammons slaves your knees will knock,
You hearts in terror beat
When God demands an answer
For the faces in the street.