Bazz an equally good financial adviser tells us they failed because of economy's of scale.
Made too many products and did not get the benefits of mass production.
In the 1960,s I helped demolish the &&&& boy boot polish factory.
As is always the case factory's close and new ones open.
Darryl lee has as much to do with the economy as that factory had.

Den71, I like the way you think.

Anthonyve >>I have doubts about tariffs.
If we apply tariffs to our imports won't our trading partners do the same to our exports (their imports), in retaliation, thus creating a zero sum game.
Second, removal of tariffs some thirty plus years ago had the effect of driving inefficiencies out of many production processes<<

Anthony you must first come to the realization that the Lima Agreement signed some thirty plus years ago is at the heart of “driving inefficiencies out of many production processes.” But rather than the laudable “driving the inefficiencies out” the globalist sought to drive production out of the COSTLY first world to the second and third world, all under the guise of “sharing global wealth” as envisioned by the UN Development Organization, the World Bank, and the IMF.

If we use your quoted criteria to judge the efficiency of manufacturing then it seems the “whole” manufacturing base of the first world was floored because the first world now produces nothing. China overtook America as the largest manufacturing economy on earth last year. Thank god that the “wests” inefficient production methods have gone to the east. Thank god that the inefficient apprentice intake that held the future of a nations ongoing productivity have been cut by over 90% in all first world nations compared to thirty years ago. Thank god the inefficient tradesmen that build the world’s economy post WWII have gone.

God you are astute Anthony, please tell me more about the doubts you have on tariffs and the horrible protectionism that all first world nations use to employ to keep their domestic economy kicking over.

BELLY >>Sorry Ludwig, but spring will come.
My garden and my party will bloom in spring.
Both full of promise for the year ahead.<<

Belly did you ever see the Peter Sellers movie "Being There"?
The plot centres around a congenital simpleton who cared for the garden of a benefactor until his death. Finding himself homeless he is then taken in by a mega rich woman after she hits him with her car. The Sellers character talks exclusively in gardening terms when answering any questions, and as it eventuates he is mistaken for a super economist and ends up being quizzed by the Americam President on the poor state of the economy.

His reply is "the garden has many seasons, after winter comes spring, then summer and all the flowers in the garden will bloom again. This is taken by the president as a validation that the Americam economy will bloom again, so a simpletons words are taken back to congress as a validation of things will get better.

Belly my china, do you and your party garden?

Deni said;
maintain the Governor Generals power to sack a duly elected government

We need some protection against governments that act illegally.
Whitlam was borrowing money illegally without the parliamentary
approval and Executive Council approval.
Remember the Khemlani affair ? He was borrowing from an Arab arms
dealer who later was gaoled somewhere, in Europe I think.
It all came to head when O'Conner continued negotiating with Khemlani
and the opposition refused supply.
The GG stepped in an resolved it by sending them to the people.

Tarrifs in the future will not be a major problem. We may need them in
the transition time but as globalisation continues to fade away
tarrifs will become less important.
Politicians have not even noticed that globalisation has already
started to wind down.
Steel production and furniture has moved back to the US and in
Australia furniture manufacture is again the main source of stock in
furniture shops. Earlier this year I was in a furniture shop to buy
a lounge and asked if it was Aus made. Yes was the reply.
I asked about the rest of the showroom floor display.
Everything except one table was Australian made.

Notice the examples I gave are all bulky goods.
Container shipping costs have risen it seems.
Bunker fuel, because of a diesel shortage in Asia, the refineries are
producing less and ships are having to buy a mixture of diesel and
bunker which is increasing their costs. Higher labour costs in China
are also having an effect.

<< Ludwig … I agree wholeheartedly that we need a new approach so here's a couple of starters. >>

<< I would push to include … a system of public referendum… This … would force government to seriously address the wishes of the people … >>

DEN71, I’m not sure this would be the right way forward. The trouble is that the people wouldn’t necessarily vote for what is in their best longer term interest. And successive referenda could well end up with conflicting results.

What we need is a government that can lead, with longer term economic and social security in mind. If they do this well, they will garner the support of the populace.

I see the biggest stumbling block as the terrible in-bed relationship between government and big business. This is the thing that we’ve got to fix, first and foremost, by radically changing the political donations regime and moving to make government independent of the enormous vested-interest fraternity that drives constant rapid expansionism and antisustainability!

<< The third choice relating to the constitution is whether to maintain the archaic loyalty to the Queen and commonwealth… >>

I really can’t see any significance at all in whether we maintain loyalty to the British monarch and become a republic. It is quite beside the point, especially if we just continue on with a totally antisustainable political agenda.

<< I would immediately re-establish a system of tariffs designed to protect and foster employment and manufacturing within the country to reduce our reliance on imported goods. >>

Yes. But as Anthonyve says, it’s not that simple. We would need to carefully assess what we can do without too much of a backlash from our trading partners.

And finally; we need to ditch the disgusting compulsory preferential voting system and go to option preferential voting, so that our vote counts where we want it to and doesn’t get STOLEN and made to count somewhere else!

Belly said;
Made too many products and did not get the benefits of mass production.

Well indirectly that is what Gobleibson said. They just continued on
the way they had always done and did not adapt to changed conditions.
That is the point I have been trying to make for some time, things
have changed, we are entering a time of zero growth.
Some countries will have contraction, some will have zero growth and
some will still have some growth.
The world average however will get closer and closer to zero.

Even if we have the same amount of energy available population growth
will have more mouths to eat the same amount of cake that we are all eating.