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That last verse was from "Faces in the street" by Henry Lawson.

Brightspark. Glad to see someone else who appreciates the works of Henry Lawson. I found "Faces in the Street" to one of the most haunting pieces of poetry ever written about a time that will surely return in due course.

Brightspark, the paying off of Govt debt has had a huge effect.
For a start, no billions of $ in interest payments, which means
billions that can be put to better use for everyone.

But yes, debt is huge, above all consumer debt. The figures are
astounding, consumers are spending up bigtime on plasma screens,
ipods and other bits and pieces at Harvey Norman, like there were
no tomorrow. A whole generation has never known high interest rates,
only 15 years of economic growth. Us older fellas know all about
Murphy's law, they clearly don't! So I guess many will one day learn
the hard way. Its my humble opinion that alot of people need pain
to learn, sadly.

Tariffs solve nothing, its exactly why we still have a problem today.
Countries like Switzerland, Germany etc, all have high wages and still
have efficient manufacturing industries, based on intelligence. Ours
grew based on high tariffs, pseudo monopolies meant lazy industry.

High tariffs mean much lower standards of living for the poor, they
also mean higher costs for efficient industries, making them even
less competitive in the global economy, due to higher input costs.
Industries like farming used to be able to carry those costs, not
anymore, the sheep has collapsed lol.

Given things like payroll tax, huge stamp duty on commercial
insurance etc, it seems to me that State Govts are doing whatever
they can to discourage people from running efficient businesses here.
Add a little hitler army of red tape enforcing bureaucrats, why
would one bother with creating an efficient export company in Australia?
I actually used to have one, in the end I sold it when
one or two little bureaucrats became a bit too obsessive for too
long. I figured why bother. No wonder our exports don't flourish,
if we do what we can to discourage them, out there in the real world.

Wildcat

I fear the times are here right now and getting worse every day, soon even Howard and Rudd will have to aknowledge this. From my "window sill" I see many more of Henry's faces than I have ever seen before. Todays Blundstone anouncement is indicative of the continuing rot.

As far as the Laboral partie's "work choices" could I recomend another work of Henry Lawson's "Arvie Aspinall's Alarm Clock" a short story. This is getting very relevant to now as days go by.

"Out beyond the further suburb, 'neath a chimney stack alone,
Lay the works of Grinder Brothers, with a platform of their own;
And I waited there and suffered, wated there for many ayear,
Slaved neath a Phantom Sighnboard, saying "second class wait here.

from "Second Class Wait Here" by Henry Lawson.

But at the present time many people think that they are safe and have an "I'm alright Jack" attitude.

Henry has an a word for them too

"But the lights on a wrecks since creation began
Have been shining in vain for the vagabond clan
They will never take warning, they will not beware
.......
Till they steer to their grave 'neath a light on a wreck."

from "The Light on the Wreck" by Henry Lawson.

Yabby you are correct that Australia's current account is in massive deficit. The balance of trade which compares australia's exports to australia's imports is also in deficit. When Qantas takes delivery of a new jumbo jet that purchase shows up on the trade figures. When a factory imports new equipment or we install new power generation plant or transmission lines or a hospital purchases a new MRI machine that's included on the trade figures.

Yes we need to export more and import less but the shifting of Blundstone manufacturing from Tasmania to China is not a move in the right direction. Likewise the importation of Melbourne's trains and trams from Europe and closure of the railway and tramway workshops are moves in the wrong direction.

Private industry is responsible for the overwhelming deficit in the current account as profits paid to overseas parent company, loans raised overseas and foreign investors take their profits and dividends out of our economy.

That said the balance of trade was in surplus in 2001 when Australia was in recession but the balance of payments was in massive deficit. The further closure/contraction of Australian manufacturing means that the balance of trade is growing and going further into deficit and probably won't show a surplus in the next recession.

How do the people who used to work in manufacturing or tertiary sectors pay for imported goods? Well they don't purchase plasma TVs or new cars because 55% of retrenched workers never work again, 10% retrenched workers get a better job and the other 35% are worse off than before they are retrenched.

People on welfare can't round up $2000 to travel to WA looking for work. I was looking for work in North West Australia in 2006 and all I could find was seasonal work, which was low paid and quite frankly not worth leaving my family in the east to pursue. I advise any one looking for work in a mining town to line it up in Perth. Mining towns are restricted areas.

Billie, the closure of Blundstone is clearly an issue between its
customers and the family who own it. They would have their reasons.
Around here, alot more people have been buying Rossi boots, so
perhaps the competition is an issue, I am not informed well enough
to comment. The same applies with your tram/railway story. Clearly
that was not about wages, seeing they are buying from Europe.
So what was it? Bad management? Union thuggery? The thing is,
if a business is not functioning profitably, change it or close it.

Yup, some workers are too set in their ways to change. Clearly there
arn't enough of them to affect Harvey Norman, as their sales are
at an all time record.

Last I heard, the Fed Govt was offering to pay people 5k$ to move
West, so that should cover any travel costs. I am not sure of your
qualifications, but there is a shortage of accomodation in the NW,
so the people up there that are required are mainly welders, fitters,
riggers, boilermakers, Haulpak drivers etc. Admin is mainly done
from Perth.

I was actually in Perth today, in the industrial area, picking up
this and that. I bumped into three people who had moved here, all
from Victoria, all were happy with their move. Clearly some are
seeing the light and not all are sitting over East, feeling sorry
for themselves. As they say, the most permanent thing in life
is change!