Now I know this will cause a stir, but it simply has to be said.

Well, apparently we have the highest minimum wage in the western world.

Let's not worry about the fact that we no longer have a manufacturing industry to speak of. Or let's not worry about the fact that we are alomst a net importer of food. Or let's not worry about the 80 something % of cars on our roads being imported.

Let's just make sure the little Aussie battler is on a decent wage for sweeping the floor.

Well done guys, take a bow!

Ok, before you set out to crucify me, please allow me to better explain myself.

So, put those daggers back in the draw for a while.

It is not the fact that those on the minimum wage get paid what they do, it is more the fact that the burden of living expenses, (which by the way is a bi-product of lifestyle choices) has been placed on the employers and it is this burden from over payment for unskilled workers that has caused us to become anti competitive on the global market.

It stands to reason that so long as the guy sweeping the floor, or mowing the lawn is on twenty bucks and hour, the business simply has no chance of competing in the global arena, and let's face it, this is where our future lies.

Farming is another prime example.

China is buying our farm land at alarming rates. Now it is my opinion that the driver behind this is the fact that they realise that our farmers will not be able to afford labour in 10 years time, and that scenario gets worse if their crops ripen or their cows need milking on a Sunday.

Governments should carry the burden of living expenses, not SMALL employers and there are many other options that should have been considered, such as, reducing foreign aid, not fighting someone Else's wars, or paying people to become 'baby factories', many of whom have little or no intention of contributing anything to society other than populating the place with kids they can ill afford to look after.

What has happened in this country in the past 10 to 15 years is a disgrace. Many of our pensioners, after having contributed all those taxes throughout their working lives are having the resort to living in poverty, even to the point of going without basics just to survive.

Hardly what I would call motivation to work hard.

rehctub,
of course we need to keep pensions below the breadline. How else can we reduce the payouts so that more can be provided for ex one or two-term pollies ? We need to keep many things down so that the professionals in health & other services can retire on more than what the average wage earner earns. Don't worry about the fact that it is the wage earner who provides by going without. It works, ask any high ranking bureaucrat.

While we the people demand better, safer working conditions for ourselves and strong regulations to protect our environment; while at the same time reward other countries for doing the exact opposite, we can't win this one.

The argument has always been that we have a responsibility to lift developing countries out of poverty which is a noble thing to do, but at what point do we stop sending ourselves into poverty to achieve this noble act? And when are we going to demand from these developing nations that they treat their people and environment with the same respect and guidelines that we follow? Until such time that we do, we will forever be behind the eight ball.

It seems to me that all those in favour of free trade and off shoring are just taking us for suckers and using this excuse to bolster their own wealth at our expense.

Recent talk of a carbon tax to create incentive for individuals to develop new green technologies and thereby creating new jobs in this country is another slide of hand trick to sucker us in. Any new tech that is developed here will before long be manufactured off shore to avoid the cost of our employees, environmental laws and bureaucratic red tape, (none of which is present in other developing countries) just as has been witnessed in America with a large solar panel manufacturing plant sponsored by the Obama administration being closed down and sent to China because the cost of doing business in America is far greater than that of China, they have the same problems we do.

We would not allow this to happen here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1350811/In-China-true-cost-Britains-clean-green-wind-power-experiment-Pollution-disastrous-scale.html

but we seem to be more than happy to allow this to happen over there.
It's things like this that are killing our wealth and our jobs!

All this talk of full employment and highest minimum wage is just more smoke to cloud the real issues, don't be fooled!

Rehctub:

...You are somewhat on the mark I think; but when it comes to the survival of age pensioners, facts go a little deeper. One huge overriding reason for poverty amongst pensioners is the cost of housing. To break that down further, divide that group into renters and owners. Where renters lose over half of the pension to rents, (irrespective of Government assistance), life is excessively bleak for them in particular; but is worse for that other ignored group, the Unemployed, who find themselves in the same boat as Pensioners, but with LESS resources from the meagre endowment, directed to them for their survival.

rehctub I would ask why is the government allowing foreign ownership of farming land? Or why not a cap?

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the ABS report due for release in September 2011 on direct foreign ownership of agricultural land, water rights and businesses undertaking agricultural activities in Australia.

As for the minimum wage, do you believe that the minimum wage should be one that a person could reasonably live on? In the US the minimum wage is not a 'living' wage and there is a huge working poor. Hospitality staff rely on tips rather than their meagre wage.

Fact is Australians get paid more than Chinese workers so they can afford to pay more as well. It is all relative.

The problem is we have built this prison for ourselves with FTAs and removing tariffs so that our strong IR system has to compete with an exploitative one. This is not something IMO that for which we should be aspiring, and in many cases the goods are not that much cheaper,with profits made on cheaper labour, pocketed by all the other fingers in the pie over any huge benefits to the consumer. Yes the goods are still cheaper but not proportional to to savings made in labour. It is just greed.

That has always been a furphy indicative of designer brands now being manufactured OS but with increases in prices rather than decreases.