With the suggestion that Ford looks like ceasing production, locally, one has to wonder why on earth our government pumped all that money in to what is now looking to be a lost cause.

You know, there is a pretty simple rule in business, that being, if the dog is dying, shoot it, don't keep throwing money at something that can't be saved.

One has to wonder why on earth would a government give money to a business. Any business, successful or otherwise, saveable or otherwise. What right have they to take away the fruits of one's labour and hand it to somebody else's business.

Rehctub, that is far too generalised. It is nowhere near that sraightforward.

It really is a pity but Ford is probably a lost cause, & GM Holden is probably not that much safer. A pity, as our Falcon & Commodore are a couple of the best & safest cars built anywhere in the world, & definitely the best value for money.

It is fair to say they are actually a victim of the global warming scam. Government has long been one of their largest customers, & our current lot have downsized the vehicles in their fleet, in response to green pressure.

GM is still financial enough to have a go at smaller cars, which I doubt is the case with Ford. We can all hope they can make a go of the Cruze. It is unlikely really, as the profit margins in the lower priced product are probably not great enough to support the infrastructure required for manufacturing in our volumes.

The number of people who will be left unemployed, & probably unemployable, in anything else available will be large. I hope someone with enough math is doing the sums, of when the cost of support is greater than the cost of letting them go.

Rehctub, as Luddy said there are more facets to it than a diamond.
I had mentioned the Lima Agreement many times before. It was the first binding tool of globalization that said to Australia, “don’t manufacture and don’t value add, your part will be to dig and harvest”. It was a thirty year plan to move manufacturing to a cheaper place to manufacture. Thirty years are up and with a population of 22 million we manufacture one tenth of the products we did with a population of 15 million thirty odd years ago when the Lima Agreement was signed.

There was nothing we could do to stop it as the banksters and the UN controlled (and still do) all the first world governments external trade policies. But at least the people (us) owned a bank, the power and water companies, the streets, roads and the dirt we stand on. Now we have sold off our power, bank, water, roads, farms and national security. This was not done by the European banks or the UN, it was done by both sides of politics, our political commissars sold Australia away from under us. The old Country Party, now Nationals, sold the agricultural industry to aliens and miners. The Libs and Labor sold off the rest.

Propping up corporations is political expediency. If the amount of money given to corporate Australia was invested in small and medium business in Australia then Joe Pleb would at the least have a vibrant domestic economy with a job available if you wanted to work.

I recently had a need to re cut and harden the teeth on a large industrial cog. I spoke to a dozen tool shops. The answer was the same, “we don’t do that in Australia any more, we send it to China, takes three months……..If you don’t want a burger or a coffee from a BARISTA, there were more adds for baristas than carpenters and electricians in last week’s papers, you have to send it where they make things, because we make nothing here

Yuyutsu, forget about the viability of the business, we should only invest the peoples money in Australian owned businesses.