Horne was not fully correct. Australians have been and continue to be a very innovative collection of people. If one bothers to look at the innovations Australians have engineered (often to try and optimise the return on their natural resources), you get into things like the stump jump plough, combined harvester, ...., anthrax vaccine, cochlear implants..and WIFI...etc
For various reasons they have not been able to derive the full value of their innovativeness. One of the reasons, which still exists today, is an ability and willingness to fund the ideas through to full value. Distance is another. So we seem to be content to do the initial funding, and then off the idea goes to Europe, UK or USA to get sufficient funding for scaling and derivation of full value.
Have a look for a reasonable insight
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/under...n-and-training/history_of_aussie_innovations/
The WIFI invention by the CSIRO is another hybrid of the same theme.
"As has been widely reported in recent days, Australia’s CSIRO has settled outstanding patent claims against US telecommunications companies including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile for around $220 million. The case against these companies has been ongoing for almost two years, although litigation involving the patent in question, which relates to technology underlying all commonly-deployed wireless local area networking (WLAN) systems and components, has a far longer history than this.
So far, taking into account previous settlements with numerous device and component manufacturers – including HP, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Netgear, Nintendo, Belkin, D-Link, 3Com and others – CSIRO has reaped over $420 million in income from its WLAN patent."
The way wealth has really been developed in countries is a topic for some discussion, and way outside of Hornes commentary and indeed access. England, largely through piracy (not that innovative, but they just scaled it up) on the seven seas and then expanded through the marvellous centre of innovation and tax evasion the City of London, Portugal their own natural resources then a touch of piracy (think disguised as control of the trade routes) and through their enslavement or massacring of indigenous people, rape, pillage etc, Spain not a lot different, USA similar and then through the growth of the ever innovative corporation, and lets never forget Belgium and Leopold 2 in the Congo .. (etc)
"Open veins of Latin America" Eduardo Geleano..1971
"Conquest, how societies overwhelm others", David Day...2008
"Colossus, how the corporation changed America" Ed Jack Beatty
"A game as old as empire" Ed Steve Hiatt..2007
"Oil Kings", Andrew Cooper, 2011
"Wealth and poverty of Nations", David Landes
"Power Inc" David Rothkopf
Lot of water under the bridge since Horne wrote his ideas, and there was a lot more water that had flowed that he had little idea about.
By the way, Gold is looking good !!!..as good as it did to the Spaniards and Portuguese all those years ago?
