"As if there is nothing positive in the economy?? Maybe there isn’t......."
Well - there sure isn't much to open the fizz and start dancing is there?
Actually I think Osi hit the nail on the head in his post - but, came to a different conclusion - his words
"All is not roooned ... unless we also score a long term drought. The agriculture sector is doing well and weather permitting will continue to do so.
There are other gems in technology, biotechnology and high end manufacturing also but you won't find them on the index. You have to seek them out."
Well, I beg to differ -------- I think all 'is probably rooned'
take Osi's examples ------------- agriculture
well - yes, 'some' agriculture is going ok --- but,
a 'lot' of it is 'foreign' owned ---------- and, we do not get royalties from agricultural products like we do when we dig up dirt and sell it.
Also --- 'any' agricultural business that is flying - is moving 'out' of human labour and into robots and mechanisation -
all of which is made overseas or if there are any Aussie manufacturers staggering along under the weight of Asian competition -they will be using massive percentages of foreign parts.
There are other what used to be large profit sectors in agriculture that are now either wiped out or under massive price pressure from cheap Asian foods ------ unless Asian food prices rise dramatically - from either their end or our currency collapse - many of those vulnerable agricultural sectors will just go extinct.
Then - Osi goes on to say
"There are other gems in technology, biotechnology and high end manufacturing also but you won't find them on the index. You have to seek them out.""
Read the last sentence again "You have to seek them out"
What does that tell you?
It tells you in with absolute certainty that this is not common -- in fact -------- it's either very uncommon or rare.
Now - the context of this article is 'not' to do with stockmarket investors -------- it's about National economics -
and, is it not crystal clear that if your successes are 'uncommon' or 'rare' and your larger sectors that are 'doing well' are rapidly doing an ownership transfer to foreigners --
then, you have problems ------------ big problems.
Lets move away from agriculture and 'uncommon' succeses - lets look at infrastructure ownership - what do we see?
whoops - pretty much a ditto there -------- major ports being foreign owned and heaven knows what else.
mining -- oh, dear -- is there anyone who reads anything who doesn't realise that pretty much all of our mining companies are foreign owned?
this is a problem.
Are we not also aware that automation is revolutionizing the mining industry (and manufacturing, what's left of it) -
so, that - we just will 'not' get the bang for the buck from jobs in mining in future that we had in the past?
One can go on and on and on.
But, - lets look at what is actually driving the economy to some reasonable degree ---------- the housing industry.
Now - what we have here is that due to massive immigration - much of the housing industry is sailing along - by the purchase of properties where kids used to play in backyards -- but, no more - because small developers - have brought the family homes and dumped the backyards - by putting up at least 2 dwellings on the same piece of land - or by combining a couple or few of those family home blocks and putting up a block of apartments (again, with no gardens at all) -
and, we think this is good?
What just some of this has done is to stretch amazingly, council, state and federal resources that service these areas - resulting in massive traffic snarls, leaping power bills, health systems stretched etc.
the payoff to states?? --------- stamp duty.
Now -------- in order for this part of the economy to continue to 'provide' ------- we need to do 'more of the same' -
so - houses with back yards that were turned into 2 homes - will have to become 4 home complexes. Immigration will have to continue at high rates - and resources will have to be stretched even further.
take the Gold Coast highway ----------- wow - you think Melbourne and Sydney traffic is bad??? -
there is a proposal (actually an election promise by some pollie) - who proposes to build a parallel highway - more of less next to the existing one -----
isn't that brilliant? What a solution for an area, for a Nation and for an economy -
lets have 2 highways clogged and streets full of even more cars and people -- and zero back yards - then, wonder just why kids don't go out and play in the yard anymore??
Brilliant.
Now ------ here's the bad news (all the above are only surface observations - you haven't heard the bad news yet).
Robotics and automation
Take a walk around any suburb -------- what do you see and what do you hear and see?
Well, you hear - traffic.
you hear - mowers. Run by people being paid to mow.
you hear - home building and renovation.
You see taxis driving people places.
You see vans and trucks delivering goods.
You see cleaners going into homes to service and clean.
You see health care workers visiting.
all that is just a small sample -
now - all of the above require atm (or at least use atm) people -- people who work in the service and building industries - who do the work, get paid and put the money back into the community - so, the money goes round - that's why it's called an 'economy'.
Now realise - that within probably 20 years -------------- you will not see almost ANY of that at all.
At least - you will not see humans involved in the process - it will almost all be robots or automation of some sort.
And, lets not kid ourselves here - there will be none of this BS that we will need people to build the robots or service the robots ---------------- machines will do it themselves.
Yes, in the 'near' future - there will be some humans who will need to design, build and maintain these system -
but, ask yourself this --------------- the bloke driving the truck or driving the taxi now -
can you see him designing the next generation robot? -- can you see him doing some high tech maint. job when some automated machine requires work?
Want a ref. to that last bit --------------- go into a truck cafe and talk to some truckies - ask them what they would do if all trucks were automated and they couldn't work in that industry.
Or - walk a taxi rank and ask the drivers what they would do for employment if taxis didn't exist.
I leave it with you --
the above are mostly facts and little opinion.
If you want my opinion ----------- well, i would say that if one were to judge what we will face 'if we use the same economic structure' that we have in the past ---------------- then, yes -------- we will be devastated.
In my opinion - economically --------- for the future - and very very soon ------- we need something completely different.
