1. A truly independent newspaper
2. A huge buy Australian campaign
3. Means testing for all government handouts
4. End to all Free trade agreements
5. Wage restraint at top end of town
6. a maximum of 10% foreign ownership of companies
7. no more then 25% of a company to be share listed
8. More transparency in company ownership
9. Stop governments selling our assets
10.A real Future Plan where will we be in 20 years

1) I would add fix the Tax system.
2) Make business pay tax if they earn money in Australia.
3) Tax the charities.
4) Deport all economic invaders and refugees that commit serious crimes.

Aussieboy & Philip S,
Ok, let's do it. It only needs 3 people to provide their names & other detail & we have a valid petition & forward it to the Governor General to be tabled in Parliament.

Dear Aussie Boy,

I'll happily sign the petition.

Great list!

Dear Aussieboy,

Here's my wish-list:

1) Maximum 2 term governments.
2) Tariffs placed on imports -
support our own industries.
3) Cut perks and entitlements to former PMs
after they leave office.
4) Place caps on politicians salaries.
5) Make politicians have annual job performance
reviews.
6) Set limits to party donations.
7) More transparency in party donations.
8) set retirement age for politicians ( e.g. -Bronwyn Bishop
is over 70).
9) Disallow monopolies on media ownership in this country.
10) Strategic industries and services should be government
owned.

My wish list is too long for here but one of my higher ranking ones is for foreign aid to come from Australian manufactured goods not cash sent out of the country.
Tax reform & National Service,
Compensation for victims of crime,
No special conditions for any able-bodied,
Lower alcohol beer,
Mono Rail right around Australia,
Flood Lake Eyre,
Less promos on TV,
Reduce the outrageous registration fees,
Allow teachers to discipline school kids,
Allow for defense lawyers to be charged with complicity.

Compensation for victims of crime

Yep, capital punishment for all those who take another's life, then, the money that would have been spent on carseration can be sent to the victims family.

They must be undeniably guilty, such as a mass murderer or one caught red handed.

However the most important change we need in this country is tax reform, because without a more boarder, fairer tax, we will fail.

The other important reform is to return our welfare system back into a 'hand up' system, as opposed to the current 'hand out' system we have.

We must also stop the cash hand outs and introduce a decent work for the dole system, even for some with disabilities.

At the end of the day we must bring an end to the eara of the gravy train.

An excellent wish-list, aussieboy. I'll sign the petition too.

Aussieboy, by far the most important point in your list is No 10.
We’ve got to develop a plan, and then get stuck into implementing it quickly and decisively.

My list of ten is:

1. Develop a national plan based on the principle of sustainability, with particular emphasis on halting the increase in the demand for resources, goods, services and infrastructure.

2. Reduce national immigration down to net zero as quickly as we reasonably can. Keep it at net zero, which would mean it would continue to become less each year for a while, as the immigration intake for a particular year would not exceed the emigration rate for the previous year.

3. Undertake a critical analysis of what is good growth and what is bad. STOP treating all growth is good and formulate a strategy to pursue the good stuff and minimise the bad stuff!

4. Strive to make government as independent from big business as possible, which necessitates a ZERO donations regime. We’ve GOT to get rid of this enormous bias, where big business basically buys favours with big donations, and consequently very strongly sways government decisions towards continuous rapid growth and hence away from sustainability.

5. Get big business and high-flyers to pay their fair share of tax. Fix the tax system.

6. Stop packing ever-more people into places that have real water-supply and congestion problems!

7. Do NOT increase the retirement age to 70. Rudd increased it from 65 to 67. That’s enough! The section of society that gets affected by this will be paying disproportionately more for our governments’ poor economic and fiscal management as it is. However, DO incentivise people to stay longer in the workforce and to work part-time in ‘retirement’.

8. Recover the rule of law. Strive to make all laws actually apply as they are written and were intended to apply. More and more we are seeing a big discrepancy in what is purported to be the legal situation and what is actually policed.

9. Halt further foreign ownership and strive to reverse it to some extent.

10. Halt further privatisation.

Guys thanks for support loved hearing i am not the only one with a problem with the way we are headed.
after reading some of the excellent posts i have tried to compress our ideas.
1. A National plan 20 year outlook
1a. with the focus being on whats good for the people of the country
1b. Immigration = decentralization (also no job 3mth into Green Army)
1c. Buy Australian campaign

2. Tax
2a. means test all government handouts
2b. Tax the rich and stop companies avoiding tax

3. unemployment
3a national service for 18-25 year old into the Green Army if no job within 3 months of leaving school/old job
3b do not raise retirement age you cant get a job now if your over 50

4. government
4a. Cut links to big business for all parties
4b. cut wages/perks/entitlements to all parliamentarians
4c. Stop selling assets NOW

5. Business
5a. Media ownership 1 outlet only
5b. wage restraint top end of town your blowing out the figures of average wages and you don't work harder then other people
5c. end free trade it only benefits china
5d. 10 % max foreign ownership
5e. 25 % max ownership anyone company
5f. The ceo is responsible for his company and more transparency on company ownership

My penmanship may not be great but you get the idea lets refine this 5 things and send it in. I would ask someone to tidy this up abit :)

Aussieboy, a financial transaction tax will put more money in the average punters pocket, while making the big end of town pay tax on every dollar spent/transferred.

I also like the suggestion of no job within 3 months, you have to work for the green army.

Goodonya! Aussieboy. I wonder if your summary passes the wisdom of Pericles test, if so perhaps we are all on the same side after all.
Den71

I'm a bit different here.

1/ Stop monopolies. No company to control more than 20% of a market. Clip the wings of Coles, Woolworths etc.

2/ Sack all planners. No government has ever got it right before, why would anyone expect them to now. Get government the hell out of our lives.

3/ Stop the tomfoolery with alternative power, before it destroys us, as it is doing to Europe.

4/ Cut tertiary education in half, particularly pretend stuff. We need trades & engineering training, not more burger flipping arts graduates.

5/ Same story, train our own, rather than import Pommys to run our mining & other industry.

6/ Cut the health budget. We can't afford to do transplants on every hasbeen or granny. General health care free, special stuff pay your own way.

7/ Cut all bureaucrats by 50% over 5 years.

8/ Stop all immigration including refugees, until real unemployment is at 4%.

9/ All judges to be elected so we might get sentences the public agree with.

10/ Lawyers & ex lawyers ineligible for election to any parliament, or to the bench as judge.

Otherwise I agree with most of the ideas.

Individual>> Aussieboy & Philip S,
Ok, let's do it. It only needs 3 people to provide their names & other detail & we have a valid petition & forward it to the Governor General to be tabled in Parliament.<<

Indy you are barking up the wrong tree.....the petition needs to go to those who control our destiny.....the European Banking Cartel...

Some good points there hasbeen

'Allo? Someone mention my stage name?

>>Goodonya! Aussieboy. I wonder if your summary passes the wisdom of Pericles test, if so perhaps we are all on the same side after all.<<

I don't know about the wisdom bit, but lists like these remind me inexorably of those onstage interviews between the smarmy MC and a string of aspiring Miss Worlds...

"So, honey, what do you wish for, most of all?"

"Well, like, y'know, I wish that all the people of the world would simply like get on with each other, y'know, so we don't have any more wars and stuff, and the world could like live in peace, y'know..."

[Applause]

Faltering voice, tears of emotion and running mascara.

OK, that is quite enough about the posters.

Miss World? She can say whatever she likes.

However the Muslims required neck to knee in 2013 and got away with that. Next time, if there ever is one, the full doona and boots. The western feminists, droopy rotund mustached lot that they are, always support Muslims and now they can add another excuse for doing so.

10 things I would like to change about Australia:

1 Any new (and old) legislation needs to be reviewed by a productivity committee to assess the unintended costs passed on to business and these costs published.

2 Tariffs and quotas on imports need to be removed, and the costs to the consumer reduced.

3 Unions need to be treated like public companies and produce audited books every year.

4 The penalties for white collar crime in businesses need to be applied to unions.

5. Unions need to lose their monopoly, and workers in a particular industry should be able to choose which union they join.

6. Privatise all state owned industries that compete with private industry such as Qantas, telstra, medibank private, etc, and use the money to build more infrastructure.

7 Scrap the carbon tax and RET, and fix state installation of renewable generation to the same proportion of GDP as other major trading nations.

8 Start unwinding the nanny state and give individuals their freedoms and responsibilities back.

9 Hand the governance of schools to the principals and the school board, to let them choose the best teachers, and promote them on performance not seniority.

10 Stop school kids and baby bonuses and all additional cash welfare, but provide vouchers for standard uniforms, books etc that can't be spent on booze, pokies etc.

So e good points shadow minister. With regards to point 10, there was an incentive a few years back called tools for trade, and to obtain these tools, a special debit card was issued with a use by date, a use it or loose it. The same can be done for these types of welfare.

To simply hand out cash to any parent, Under the disguise of a school bonus was only ever a vote buying excersise, albeit a failed one.

My list is short and concerns what people can do themselves to improve their lot, their community and eventually, Australia.

There I go, I have given away my first wish, that individuals take up the many opportunities that present daily to improve their own outlook, their own environment (in the broad) and their world. Instead of getting their dander up about what 'someone else' and 'government' ought do for them. You could put a short butt of hardwood on a pedestrian walkway and most would trip over it, scolding angrily, 'Someone really ought to fix that', while another reaches for the mob to complain to someone, somewhere. However, it is noticeable that most elderly would simply move it to the gutter. Times have changed.

My second wish is that freedom of speech be restored. People, individuals, should challenge and resist the dreadful political correctness that censors, disempowers and divides. This man who was addressing a graduating year of lawyers at Harvard put it well,

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/charltonhestonculturalwar.htm

Others for example Peter Hitchens, have observed that the cultural war was lost long ago.
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2013/11/05/peter-hitchens-on-qa/

Resist. Freedom is worth it.

Finally, I would wish that the dreadful envy that is now so common (or is it only hack reporters and the whingers who follow them?) should be identified for what it is and spurned. There are far too many people who mind their neighbours' back yards and constantly interfere in the lives of others around them. Australia recently rid itself of a federal government than specialised in interfering in ordinary citizens' lives and tried to make a virtue of it. Good riddance!

In closing, it would be useful if everyone contributed - tried to so some work to the level of their ability and that includes volunteering.

SM>>2 Tariffs and quotas on imports need to be removed, and the costs to the consumer reduced.<<

SM, you continue to extol the virtues of an unprotected global market when it is abundantly clear that it costs jobs in the first world. That was the documented plan of the free trade globalists and it has come to fruition. We are simply not self sufficient as a nation because of free trade, we make nothing in comparison to the Australia of the 1970’s and you see merit in that. Our kids aspire to be a McDonalds team member, a servant......and you applaud that idiocy.

You have for years defended the banks and the corporations and bleated about the lower costs....what lower costs? From the 18 most expensive cities to live in on the globe Australia has 4 placegetters. Your rhetoric is shallow, it has always been so.

Your mindset and rediculous ongoing theme of "the bludgers are bringing the nation down" and "you can live well in Australia if you are not a lefty bludger" means squat when you are a young couple living in an Aussie city with an average house price of three quarters of a million dollars.

SM, I am long over debating with the likes of you, but I will remind you of the rubbish logic you type out when enough spin is enough spin.

SOG,

What is abundantly clear is that you have zero knowledge of economics. Tariffs push up the cost of living, and the cost of manufacturing. It only slows the closure of uncompetitive industries, it does not stop it, and in the process damages any new industries that might emerge. IT is a death spiral around the plug. The outcomes of countries with high tariffs is always worse than those without.

Britain before Thatcher was going bankrupt with the large protected industries crumbling. She sold off nationalised businesses, removed tariffs, and in a decade turned the economy around. You want to do the opposite.

Shadow Minister

And now they just riot in the streets yea lets go that way shell we

SM>>Tariffs push up the cost of living, and the cost of manufacturing.<<

SM you suggest I know nothing about economics. One salient point I do know is that everything moves in concert with the prevailing economy. The outcome of a totally unprotected and prevailing economy in the first world is a blow out in social benefits. You know the ones....the ones you have whinged about for years and years.

You can not have it both ways Mr Economist.

I would prefer a full workforce and pay a few more shekels for the niceties of our modern age. Might even have to save up for things like wee did in the 20th century.

The toughest thing is to put the past into its proper context.

>>We are simply not self sufficient as a nation because of free trade, we make nothing in comparison to the Australia of the 1970’s<<

As I recall, during the seventies, most of the economies to the north of us were relatively dormant. Japan of course was well on the way to becoming the dominant force in electronics and car manufacture, but Korea, Vietnam, China etc. were fledgling at best. So, while we stood still and watched, these economies became the manufacturing centre of the globe, and we became one of their many customers.

Think about it for a moment.

If back then we had chosen to protect our own manufacturing industries from overseas competition, everything you see around your house today would have been massively more expensive - most of it completely unaffordable to the average household. Our economy would have tanked, and we would have been even more reliant on mineral exports to survive, to the point where the only foreign currency available would be funneled through the mining businesses. Which, by the way, would have to be totally owned by overseas companies, as we would not have the internal capacity to raise the capital necessary to finance the mines in the first place.

And introducing protective measures today would have the same result, except that the population - having experienced a reasonable standard of living for many decades - would take to the streets en masse, and start lynching politicians on sight.

So, not all bad, then...

SOG,

What tripe. The depression in the late 1920s started off as a recession, then as some countries put up trade barriers, so others did too, and it became a full scale depression, far worse than the GFC.

If you think that putting up tariffs would not trigger a response you are delusional. If our main trading partners put up tariffs against our products, our manufacturing would collapse.

Aussieboy,

Some day you may grow up to be an Aussieman.

Dear Shadow Minister
Thanks for the personal attack I take it your argument ran out of steam

Thanks for your input Pericles. Thanks for your astute posturing that we are better off under a free trade market.

My only rebuttal to your nonsense is to quote you the Australian household debt to disposable income ratio. In 1970 household debt in Australia was less than 22% of disposable income. In 2013 it was 178% of disposable income. Inthe 1970's the majority of that debt was for the family home.......less Aussies own their own home today than they did in the 1970's.....but we have plenty of cheap imported non essential products in our rented accomodation.

Are you and SM bankers......because only bankers could relish a nation in dire debt, and they do....their huge profit margins example that....and SM do not dribble out your line of the banks working on a profit margin of 1.5%....because that is rubbish as well. The figures I quote are now standard debt ratios for the whole first world.

Aussieboy,

If you submit idiotic and irrelevant posts that have spelling and grammar that would shame a 10 year old, then don't expect to be taken seriously.

Dear Shadow Minister
Please control yourself
You did use England as your example and I pointed out all the social problems it created then you got personal so ill take that as a win you ran out of argument. also spelling and grammar We are on a forum not writing legal documents , So when you think you have a solid argument come back to me. To me you sound like a poor little rich boy crying over daddy money and think this gives you the right to hoist your Ideas on People that actually work and work hard for a living.

....And now they just riot in the streets yea lets go that way shell we

Yes Aussieboy, but the main driver of riots us the failed multicultural experiment.

.....>>We are simply not self sufficient as a nation because of free trade, we make nothing in comparison to the Australia of the 1970’s<<

No, we are nit self sufficient because our lifestyles are too high and our population is too small.

I'm not suggesting we increase our population though, especially if that means increases to the free loaders we already have, but, to maintain the lifestyles we do, especially the hand outs, we have no choice but to over produce. So self sufficiency is not an option.

Dear rehctub

I am hearing a lot about dole bludgers freeloaders and such but do some quick maths
These are not accurate figures because you cant get those
500000 people out of work 10000 jobs available you always going to have a large unemployed sector so is it fair to call them names its not their fault they have no work its our politicians driving the show and a whole lot more about to hit the pile with the holden/qantas/etc and these are only ones making the news there are many others.

AB,

Take it as a win, a home run, a total victory, I couldn't care less.

Your crude and inarticulate post implying that a recent race riot in London was due to economic policy implemented 3 decades ago also lacks any justification or logic.

I would guess that the closest you came to a legal document is from a juvenile court public defender, and wouldn't know hard work if it hit you between the eyes.

You're welcome, sonofgloin.

>>Thanks for your input Pericles. Thanks for your astute posturing that we are better off under a free trade market. My only rebuttal to your nonsense is to quote you the Australian household debt to disposable income ratio.<<

But hold on just one minute. That's isn't a rebuttal of the arguments I was making, at all. Not even close.

All you are saying, in fact, is that while all these eager countries to our north were gearing up to make stuff for Australians to buy, we were busy borrowing the money to buy it. Right?

Protectionism implemented forty years ago could possibly have prevented this particular over-borrowing position. But with the unavoidable consequences that I described.

And as I also pointed out...

"...introducing protective measures today would have the same result, except that the population - having experienced a reasonable standard of living for many decades - would take to the streets en masse, and start lynching politicians on sight."

Incidentally, North Korea is a pretty good example of what happens when a country shuts itself off from the impact of global economic reality.

Great if your name is Kim Jong Un. But otherwise, not so good.

Aussieboy,

Your wish list was very good, as were the other ideas added by some other Forum members. It's unfortunate that this thread has somewhat degenerated into a slanging match, rather than staying focused on the subject.
I'm sure we all have very long wish lists too, and for me one priority would be that our laws be strengthened against serious offenders. Those who commit murder should never get less than a life sentence [a death penalty would be cheaper of course]. Another is that we decentralise to smaller communities rather than expanding our capitals, and squeezing the burgeoning population into smaller blocks or apartments. Canada has now blocked wealthy foreigners buying in to their country, so now these people are looking at us as the alternative. My wish would be to follow Canada's example.
Deporting illegal immigrants who commit crimes back to their place of birth, and holding off on accepting more while we cope with absorbing the over 50,000 [mostly men] who have arrived by various means under the previous government is another wish. Commonsense appears to have been replaced by government infighting. We elected this government, but minority elements are hell bent on destabilising most of their reforms. I wish it would stop.

Dear Shadow Minister
I'll repeat poor little rich boy go cry to daddy for some more money
Leave the rest of us alone we earn our pay
As for the riot not 1 riot but many riots and not all about race its a social problem brought on by the said polices you sprout do the same here expect riots call it w/e you want to austerity comes to mind rich making poor pay for their mistakes. and any thing you say i have been called worse by better people then you.Your constant abuse just means you have no valid argument, Reminds me a lot of our current Prime Minister lots of rhetoric no substance.

It's pity that when one tries to hold a rational debate, you end up being abused by a semi-literate dole bludging troll.

to bad you started it first and I have a job do you shadow minister ?
Read The posts you lost your temper and started abuse
Don't like being told your wrong ?

I am really happy you have joined the employed.

The government really has done wonders to help the physically and mentally disabled find meaningful work.

dear sm let me tell you a little story
the year is 1976 I was in 3rd form the then minister for employment did a round at Sydney schools
He wanted boys aged 15 and up to leave school and go get an apprenticeship because our country needed us the job where mainly in manufacturing. So the majority of my classmates where given apprenticeship we where basically cheap slave labour of course we where only paid an apprentice wage. 3 years and the firm I worked at closed the doors We made Pipe fittings.So now I m living on my own no job no income get a job everyone told me, So I did cutting chickens up So after about 20 such jobs mainly because companies keeped closing ( in the meantime i had done night studies to finish year 9 and 10 to receive a school certificate.
At this time I started my own business and was quite successful until we had more government intervention remember the words "the res session we had to have "It then took me 10 years to payout all my bills and i paid all of them I owed nothing no bankruptcy,I then was stuck with applying for more jobs , Guess what nobody wanted to employ someone with just a school certificate, I was forced to take a job at a major retailer and until I turned 50 was no problems. at 50 no one was interested in employing me and I am by far not the only one the number of over 50 out of work is a national disgrace , I had to move to the ACT to get work which i now work very long hours for minimal wage.So as I see it i've been screwed over already 3 times by governments and will not take them at face value, You have constantly slandered me but really I am a creation of bad politics,.Get out in the real world see how bad things are for the average worker, and Australia is in boom-time ?Please

I repeat goodonya Aussieboy, You at least recognize the symptoms of failure about market supremacy,it is as you suspect actually a system for screwing the people of the planet to the huge benefit of a few, 1% is the word on the ground. Brighter people than most of us bloggers have currently and historically done in-depth studies of global economic trends. I have read extensively on this subject and to me there is no doubt that the western economy's are being sustained on the back of over exploitation of slave labour and natural resources. Some of us feel comfortable about this fact, I certainly do not. The shirt on your back is most likely made by some poor sod labouring for $3 a day in one of the 90 countries which operate free trade zones. Google free trade zones and find out for yourself. Den 71

AB,

I am sorry things did not turn out so well. I am also over 50 and know that it is easier to get a job as a young man.

I think the thread of what you are saying is an anger against government meddling. However, the 10 things that you would like done are extreme forms of government intervention that would have catastrophic results.

1. Eat the elderly: they don't provide any useful services but their corpses, properly rendered, can provide a useful source of protein and fat for our own consumption. In death, they can martyr themselves to the ultimate cause: the longevity of the human race. Who said old people are useless? A few 'Ol' Man Spam' (patent pending) restaurants would ease overpopulation and associated demographic pressures, whilst providing valuable nutrition for coming generations.
2. Eat babies: not my original idea. The great satirist Jonathan Swift first advanced the idea of eating Irish babies as a way to alleviate the crippling economic problems afflicting his homeland. But the crux of his 'Modest Proposal' is still a corker: eat the babies of the poor to make the rich richer. It's such a good idea I'm surprised it isn't already liberal policy.
3. Better public transport.
4. More funding for R&D in all areas but especially medical science.
5. A more representative democracy: I've nothing against a few lawyers in the parliament but it seems that is all we have: just lawyers. Where are the scientists, the nurses, the doctors, the engineers, the teachers and the tradies? Where are the politicians who have worked a proper job instead of becoming politicians?

6. The penalties for theft, larceny, robbery, fraud, etc. need to be applied with equal vigour to those who can afford good lawyers as to those who can't: theft is theft regardless of whether it is conducted at knifepoint by deadbeats or conducted electronically by deadbeats in nice suits.
7. Secede from Tasmania: they're so far removed from the mainland that they can't really be considered part of Australia anyway. We should give NZ the island in return for an agreement that they'll stop shipping their coconuts to us. A few less drunk coconuts on the streets would slash the rate of violent assaults markedly: white men require a heavy cocktail of steroids, alcohol and stimulants to make them violent; coconuts only need half a light beer and they're happy to coward-punch any skinny little whitefella.
8. More books. Less TV. Until the age of 15 there was no television in my house. My siblings and I read for entertainment. It did wonders for our education. I don't suggest the government should ban television, but maybe it would help if parents gave their kids a book instead of parking them in front of the telly.
9. Legalise gay marriage.
10. Redistribute wealth from those who don't need such ridiculously large disposable incomes to give to those who are in poverty. James Packer doesn't really need another luxury yacht or another mansion and some people can't afford to feed their family. We need to regain some sense of perspective: isn't a 5th mansion purchased as a holiday home a tad excessive when some Aussies can't put a roof over their head?

Cheers,

Tony

Pericles>>. All you are saying, in fact, is that while all these eager countries to our north were gearing up to make stuff for Australians to buy, we were busy borrowing the money to buy it. Right? <<

Yes, in the 1970’s we had an option to buy local or buy imported, today we have no choice.

Pericles>>. Protectionism implemented forty years ago could possibly have prevented this particular over-borrowing position.<<

Australia was NOT asked forty years ago whether we would be willing to give up our ENTIRE manufacturing base for half price socks. That’s exactly what was signed away by both sides of politics when they signed the Lima Declaration. The declaration spells out a plan to de industrialize the first world and all bastard politicians signed it. Do you think the man or woman in the street in 1973 would have said...”yeah we’ll give it a go.”

Pericles>>. Incidentally, North Korea is a pretty good example of what happens when a country shuts itself off from the impact of global economic reality.<<

P, forget about Nth Korea, the family are nut cases....but consider Cuba...not nut cases....the Castro rebels were humanists that rebelled against the Batista oppression and put in a call to America to help them become a democratic nation after the civil war. But America turned them down...America implemented trade sanctions....went to the UN and solicited every other form of sanction....so Cuba turned to the USSR. That stranglehold on global commerce is why the Eastern block lived like Russians....If you can’t trade what you make you survive without prospering. The same elite that shafted Cuba, shafted the first world and most here believe it is for the best. When we had half the population we had three times as many apprentices. How do you measure prosperity Pericles?

Hold on a moment, sonofgloin.

What's this I see?

>>If you can’t trade what you make you survive without prospering.<<

That is exactly what I have been trying to tell you all along.

Isolationism, whether it is self-induced (North Korea) or externally applied (Cuba) is very bad for the prosperity of a nation.

Pericles>> That is exactly what I have been trying to tell you all along.

Isolationism, whether it is self-induced (North Korea) or externally applied (Cuba) is very bad for the prosperity of a nation.<<

P, the issue is the “externally applied” sanctions....applied by whom....the same organizations that stripped manufacturing from the first world. Why strip manufacturing from the first world.....to bring cheaper goods to the first world is the argument tendered by SM and other myopic thinkers.

Are you old enough to recall the global industrial disputes of the 1960’s and 1970’s? The international union movement had issues with the industrialists regarding the sharing of wealth. The unions watched as technology reduced the number of workers to a third of the previous decades. The unions watched output treble with a lower wages fixed cost base....and the unions then demanded outrageous wage agreements for the few workers left.

The ones who run the world decided they had enough and implemented a 30 year strategy to move manufacturing to countries that had no unions let alone human rights agendas. The only obstacle to further indecent profit margins was the protectionist policies that the entire first world had. Free trade agreements were the tool they used to overcome that and the base plan came via the Lima Agreement.

P most think the current situation just evolved....naturally.....but it was a planned and implemented world domination strategy sponsored by the European banking cartel via the UN, IMF, and World Bank.