Yes Belly, what you describe is an example of where govt also has gone.
This what I have been trying to get across about growth.
With no growth we can keep things going as they are. Nothing new built
no borrowing, just running to stay still in one place.

If we have growth, that growth can be used to pay for a new project
by either cash or instead borrow and use the growth to pay the#
# No more than 8 posts per article in any given 24 hour period.
loan repayments including interest.

Where people as well as govt has got into trouble is they have
borrowed and spent more than the available growth and when growth
stopped they kept on borrowing and spending.

Growth requires increased energy. That is the simple fundamental.
Since 2006 there has been no increase in available energy.
China and India mainly have been mopping up any extra energy that they
obtained by long term contracts and so other countries have had to go without.
Pakistan for instance has massive blackouts because they cannot
afford the fuel for their power stations.
The US has cut back their oil consumption, until recently by 2 million
barrels a day.
Now you can see why we are paying $124 a barrel for oil.

Our growth is 1.2%, very low and may not pay our interest bills.
It would be coming from mining I think, so the rest of the country
is in contraction, not even zero growth.

Now perhaps when you hear the financial commentators waffling on about
low growth in various economies you might understand what is going on.

Bazz while we ave some things in common our opinions on issues are far apart, some times.
I truly and honestly want you, and Any one, to prove to me this government has got us in to financial trouble.
Given Howard Costello, the mining boom, previous Labor government actions we had money in the bank.
Yes true, Liberal stated policy was to stall our economy.
Put fiscal responsibility first.
That meant recession near depression, it meant great pain and unemployment.
It meant No pension rises no school building no new hospitals.
FAR more it may have saw depression, once stalled economys take a lot to restart.
Right now, today, we AUSTRALIA, are so little in debt compared to other developed country's the claim we are in trouble is.
Uniformed or blind, or biased lies.
We do not face the horrific ENGLISH belt tightening, I admire the cuts a conservative government is showing there.
And under stand the pain lower income [it is always so] carry to get that economy back in the black.
It Bazz is True, Capitalism, our only life boat, must continue to grow.
If you got your wish, if progress stopped, truth is the Ponzie scheme we live in would collapse over night.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8720479/Debt-crisis-live.html
Link is one of hundreds I could of posted here.
Why?
Well afraid I who owe no man one single cent, and own everything I need, am convinced we must look at the financial state of the world.
Christians, all religions see us as passengers on an ocean liner, and God at the wheel.
Australians of my generation will say she,ll be right mate!
Will it.
We like to say how bad things are here in our country.
And even I can see a recently elected state government taking action to put it back in the black, harsh action .
But what is the right action.
How do we, should we, control personal debt.
Would that be enough? to turn the worlds economy around?
I look and shake my head,at complaints the problem is workers wages.
That opinion never includes such as the multi million dollar bonuses the head of Quantas got for? cutting costs/sacking workers.
In the some country villages /towns around me, wages only keeps the shop doors open.
And for how long.
Our housing bubble grows, today investors may become millionaires , but tomorrow? a black cloud is above.

Belly, like it not, wages are the cause of high living costs and highh debt levels.

You see in todays world people are no longer expected to work long hours fr big money, they simly exect to be paid well, skilled or not, and this has made us uncompetetive in the global market, and it is this globa market that holds the key to our future.

Look around you today and a vast amount of the jobs out there ar either gvernment funded, or, even worse, fixing government stuff ups.

Now most of the wage increases are as a result of the mining boom you know, who hasnt heard the ol' i know a bloke on three gand a week driving a truck at th mines.

So, with most small businesses doing it tough, some down by as much as 80%, having to fund wage increases just because th masses are doinng it tough, has not gone down to well, especially since many owners earn less and work more.

Most o f my mates in business say they hate it and would quit at a heart beat.

This qantas thing is yet another example of staff not accepting time are tough and may well com back o bite them.

Now how you can sit there and say this government has not contributed to our situation defies beliefe.

But then you also accuse me of being ill informed but you coldnt be furtherbfrom the truth.

Rechtub! lets you and I try one last time.
Its as simple as the chicken and the egg.
If you let it be.
If just say wages this very day all of them saw an across the board cut 10%.
Your first thought? bet you think ah! at last my profits will rise.
Would custom drop? even by only 5%?
Is it just possible, just a chance, housing costs take so much of our pay now we have less to spend on food/cars/holidays?
Now lets get away from your City shops.
Out in the country now our town,for this debate has 15.000 people.
We are mostly living in isolation from big city's.
the wage cut? any chance 10% of the money spent here stops? maybe 10% of firms /shops fail.
Simplistic and uninformed to place wage costs at the head of a list of reasons for GFC.
GFC was/is about debt, about people without funds buying things they could not pay for.
About cooperate fraud and greed.
Rechtub wages end up in your till.
Meat is a rare treat on my reduced income and lack of free to spend funds not too much money is your problem.

Belly a larger threat to small tows
is factory closures, due mainly to the factory becmming anti competetive.

Now while i accept there are many influences to this problem, wages are a key issue, as the IR laws recognise the time one has worked, rather than the throughput achieved.

What is needed is a basic wage plus productivity allowances as this wll reward the better worker, something that is illigal in most circumstances which often results in the lowest productivity worker settng the bar.

Coupled with unfair dismissal laws the result has been a failure in te new one si ze fits all IR laws. We warned you all but you didnt listen. Perhaps you will once the s mall town jobs ar gone.

Many labor suporters will hold a position simply to be objective.