Like Peter Sellars in that movie...."we like to look"
IMO we missed the Silicon Valley gravy train while we
fiddled around on our Nokias
We tried to set up a geek based Multifunction Polis
in the late 1980s to do a mini-Silicon Valley but
like the notion of manufacturing aluminium castings
for the EV gravy train, then as now there were
the chorus of naysayers ........too high wages....
too much red tape.... tyranny of distance ...and all that jazz!!!!
And besides, Silicon Valley was. a haven for the intellectual
elite which were imported from the 4 corners of the world
and benefited the already uber rich via mega investment
returns with little or no economic benefits trickling down
to the average US worker.
Manufacturing on the other hand employs a broad spectrum
of local labour and if exclusively Aussie owned, then unlike
with our mining and other Multinationals' businesses , the profits can't
be spirited overseas to tax havens .
44% of Australians don't complete grade 12 let alone have the
mathematical/technical abilities to get into the geek world .
We have to exploit our strengths and our competitive advantages ..
not try to ape others in areas where they have strengths and competitive
advantage.
The world of trade is now dividing into 2 blocks :
-The Pro US Block
-The Pro China Block
And we are like simple Simon:
We have put our economic eggs in China's basket & our National Security
eggs in the US basket and then we spruik war with China over Taiwan
which we endorsed as part of China in the 1970s.
IMO unless we diversify trade away from China dependance well
end up "scrambled eggs" when the US inevitably bungs Russian
style economic sanctions on China.
So, in summary, we (not Multinationals) can cherry pick some
of our prime raw mineral and energy exports, downstream
process them , add Aussie value and export to non-China
aligned countries...particularly those with which we have FTAs.
We can afford $375 Billion for a handful of US Nuke Subs
which we won't be allowed to control to maintain Uncle
Sam's Pacific hegemony , yet we can't afford a $100
million to invest adding Aus value to a %age of our raw
mineral and energy exports to economically firewall
ourselves against China .
What are we?......lazy ex-colonals with a "she'll be right, mate" mantra
and the laughing stock of the manufacturing world !
EVs are just in their infancy IMO, with a potential global
market of 80 million units P/A . The consumer market
is talking through its hip pocket by demanding 'Green"
vehicles and what a better way to exploit that market
than to supply green aluminium machined castings .
And don't say we can't do it....Indonesia has already
jumped on this trend by supplying Apple with green
aluminium products
Hello.....we are exporting raw bauxite from Tassie to China
and of course Tassie has an abundance of Hydro-Electricity
(so much so that its exporting it to Victoria via an undersea
cable!!!) but can we put both together?????....The Canadians can:
AND WE CANT EVEN PUT 2 &2 TOGETHER IN TASSIE LET ALONE SET UP AN OBSOLESCENT NOTION SILICON VALLEY
