Interesting turn of phrase there, Philip S. If you'd said "...the less it becomes worth" then you'd arguably have been correct. But what you actually said shows you don't realise the significance of the changes that have taken place since the collapse of Bretton Woods.

Right now the Aussie dollar is not at all worthless. So unless and until it becomes worthless, it is impossible for it to become more worthless.

Printing more Aussie dollars will NOT make them worthless. Back in the era of fixed exchange rates, there was a risk it could. Indeed in the 21st century we're still seeing fixed exchange rate currencies collapse when governments lose the means to back them up.

But since Paul Keating floated our dollar in the '80s, we don't even need to back it up! The market determines the value, and it's self correcting: it its value falls, imports become more expensive and exports cheaper, so we import less and export more, increasing the value. Conversely if the value rises, imports become cheaper and exports become more expensive, so we export less and import more, decreasing the value.

When money that would otherwise be saved (or not borrowed) is spent, regardless of whether by the public or private sector, it decreases our dollar's value very slightly. Even the effects of big things like a new airport railway are lost in the noise of the constant speculation. And if the people who ultimately get the money use it to pay off debt or increase savings, that negates the lowering effect. But the long term effect on the currency value depends on whether or not the thing the money is spent on will increase production. I think it's fair to say that the airport railway link - even this inefficient version - will ultimately have a production boosting effect.

"Printing more Aussie dollars will NOT make them worthless."

But it will make them worth less.

Let's assume Aidan is correct. The government should print enough to allow every citizen family to buy a nice flat on the Riviera and first class tickets to visit it each year. After all, we've got unlimited credit.

//The government should print enough to allow every citizen family to buy a nice flat on the Riviera//

Which Riviera?

I assume we have an Australian Riviera somewhere, seeing as the literal translation of 'riviera' is 'coastline', and that the Europeans who settled our land brought their old names with them - which is why I live in a state that bears almost no resemblance to South Wales.

But if you're talking about Cote d'Azur or the Ligurian Riviera, wouldn't we have to print euros, francs, the highly pixelated coins preferred by the Italian Plumbing Union, and whatever other Italians use for currency (we'll call them 'wogdollars' for the sake of argument)? And might that not upset the Frogs, Wogs, and EU bureaucrats (read: Belgians)?

//After all, we've got unlimited credit.//

Ah, I see what you did there.

I dropped out of economics after year 11 because it was too dull and it was taking up room in the attic which could be better utilised for Science! :)

But I learnt enough to learn that everybody has unlimited wants, and that resources are finite, so not everybody can live on the Riviera of their choice. You have to work out some sort of system for who gets to live on the Riviera, and we call that economics. Am I doing OK so far, mhaze?

And basically the system we've come up with is that if you're lucky enough to have very wealthy parents and lucky enough to have inherited (biologically and environmentally) the brains to not squander that money, you too can have you very own flat on a Riviera.

Worse systems exist: we could be living in planned economy, where nowt is left to chance and your only prospect of a flat on a Riviera is being sufficiently sycophantic to the Great Leader.

Still, I'm not convinced that putting a bunch of Knaves into a hat and then picking out the one with the weakest chin as the winner is the best way to do things either. I might have to start a new thread on this.

mhaze,
"But it will make them worth less."
A slight oversimplification, but basically correct - indeed I acknowledged it in the second sentence of my first paragraph and the first sentence of my last paragraph.

Yet it appears that's not enough for you - you feel so threatened by what I've written that you stupidly attempt to discredit me by reductio ad absurdism - and make some predictable logical errors.

Are you capable of spotting the flaws in your own arguments? Have a go - you may learn something! And if you can't, I'll explain them to you.

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Toni Lavis, I'll respond to your post in a couple of days, but I'd like to see mhaze having a go at thinking first!

I got a quote from Redcliffe to Bris airport via air train... $103 return for two people. Thats after travelling to a nearby station, then making a connection train. What a joke.

I parked at an off site parking facility, paid $67 and received free shuttle bus drop off/pick up.

Meanwhile the privately owned airtrain remains a disaster.

It's actually not much more for a cab from door to door. But then again these are the same governments that allow the likes of Ubar to force many cab owners to the wall.

Without doubt the most out of touch government I have ever seen

That puzzles me, rehctub - I've used Brisbane's Airtrain, and it was nowhere near that expensive.