Should Australia have its own Brexit?

[old man emu]

Australia's current relations with China, South-East Asia, Japan and the USA highlight the deficiencies in the structure of our Economy.

 

There are three sectors of industry in Economics:

1. Primary - the production of plant, animal (agrarian activities) and mineral products (exploitative activities)
2. Secondary - conversion of Primary products to higher value goods. (manufacturing and processing)
3. Tertiary - provision of financial, legal, cultural and service activities.

 

Australia is strong in the Primary and Tertiary sectors, but very weak in the Secondary sector. This means that in order to obtain the goods produced by Secondary industry we sell off our Primary production cheaply and pay dearly for our Tertiary products. If you examine the strong economies of the World - China and the USA in particular, you can see that they are supported by a strong, three-legged stool where each of the sectors combines to make the whole stool strong and stable. While it is possible to make a seat with only one leg like a shooting stick,

it is not possible to make a stool with two legs that is strong and stable.

 

Is it time for Australia to stop dealing in of some of its traditional trade goods and make an concerted effort to create that third leg of the stool by reviving the manufacturing sector that existed in fledgling form prior to the 1960's? Look at the vast array of manufactures products we take for granted for daily use and see how the supply of these products has dwindled because circumstances have prevented out importing them from those countries with a strong manufacturing stool leg. The current circumstances have arisen in times of minimal conflict. If some of the big dogs of the world start a dogfight, we won't have a bone to chew on. 

[willedoo]

The theory is good, but the question is how would we make that concerted effort. A return to heavy tariffs and Australians paying three times the price for most goods wouldn't work. Nor would having a slave class labouring in factories for the sort of wages they get in China. For us to manufacture goods at a competitive price we would have to rely heavily on robotics and automation infrastructure. The problem with that is finding companies and corporations willing to stick their neck out financially, particularly when countries like China are breathing down their necks. I think unless Australians are prepared to pay a lot more and accordingly do without a lot of stuff we've become accustomed to, things won't change.

 

The way it is at the moment, goods are cheap enabling us to have a comfortable lifestyle.That's only possible because some poor bugger overseas is working long hours for barely enough pennies to feed his family. Some of the clothes and gear we use are made with child labour. If anyone knows how Australia can compete with that, I'd be keen to hear their views. One upside of the pandemic is that it's focused attention on the need for Australia to be more independent.

[Yenn]

Isn't that poor bugger overseas usually a robot.

Just look at electronics. There is no way they could be built by hand for the prices we pay, not even with poorly paid child labour.

[onetrack]

The answer is quite clear - Yes, Yes, and Yes. For far too long we have relied on many overseas countries to provide our manufactured goods - and paid dearly for it, in high transportation costs, and other hidden costs.

In the 1930's, Australia had a major automotive industry, and multiple tens of thousands of people were employed manufacturing for that industry, and maintaining automotive equipment.

 

We even built our own "sloper" car body style designs - totally independent of American and British input. In WW2, we found ourselves isolated, and we turned to producing War equipment very rapidly.

We produced everything we needed to supply the War effort - from canned food right through to our very own tank, the Sentinel (with a world-first, one-piece cast hull) - and the Americans were stunned.

But the American manufacturers ensured our tank-making ability would be neutered - so they promptly delivered enough tanks, to ensure our tank project was canned.

 

We produced optical glass during WW2, when it was obvious we would not be able to get critical optical glass supplies, and we manufactured War equipment in development times that stunned the Americans again.

We need to get back to being more self-supporting, and being a supplier of finished products of high quality to the rest of the world. In the 1960's we exported Australian-designed-and-built Chamberlain tractors to 19 countries in our region.

 

But the global corporates have always manipulated markets, and indulged in corporate scheming, and ensured they gained control of our manufacturing, and ensured it was dismantled (or neutered), so it posed no threat to their global concerns.

By far the greatest threat to our existence is the unbelievable power wielded by the global corporations, who only want us as 21st century serfs, and consumers for their products, and ensuring low wages for anyone they employ at ground level.

Edited July 13, 2020 by onetrack

[onetrack]

I neglected to add the full story of Australia's optical glass manufacturing ramp-up during WW2, so here's the complete story from beginning to end ...

 

http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/mellor.htm

 

In addition the site linked to below, outlines many of Australia's greatest scientists and their achievements. We need to continue to encourage technical, scientific, and inventive advances, if we want to "stay ahead of the curve".

 

http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/mellor.htm

 

We have garnered hundreds of millions in royalties each year from CSIRO patents on important technical developments - from CSIRO inventions such as the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer, right through to perfecting Wi-Fi.

However, many of those important scientific and technical inventions have now been superseded by other countries inventions, or the patents have run out. The CSIRO patent on their Wi-Fi technology expired in 2013.

 

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/04/how-the-aussie-government-invented-wifi-and-sued-its-way-to-430-million/

Edited July 14, 2020 by onetrack

[Bruce Tuncks]

Well I tried onetrack. I even fly a Jabiru. Alas the rest of Australia just doesn't seem to care like I do.

My defence strategy would be based on long-range pilotless Jabiru drones with inertial navigation and nukes.

Thousands of them. Several would get through any attempt to stop them.

This threat should ensure our safety from attack, and we could stop spending squillions on our military.

Everything in my arsenal would be designed and built here.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I reckon willedoo that you are a bit too pessimistic about the use of robots in manufacturing. Not to mention 3d printing. CNC is old hat these days but my Jabiru has a lot of it in the engine.

We lost our car-making industry but the jobs were lost many years ago. There are only about 30 man-hours in a new car these days.

So what are all the kids going to do for jobs? Copy the aborigines, say I. It is very unusual for any of them to even think about a job in the traditional sense. Live off benefits. 

[octave]

45 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

So what are all the kids going to do for jobs?

 

They are going to do the new economy jobs. Throughout history progress has meant that some jobs become irrelevant. A job really is something that people are prepared to pay you to do.  I don't believe there are less jobs these days just different jobs.   

 

Brave Bronze World

[Marty_d]

Maybe we're moving to a post-job world.  Not for our kids, but for generations hence, it may be that personal gain is decoupled from effort.  Let's face it, there have always been certain positions in society where an accident of birth meant some people didn't have to expend effort at all to retain/gather vast wealth while others expended hard effort 6 or more days a week to retain just enough to survive.

It doesn't take too much effort to imagine a utopian "Star Trek" type future where money is a historical idea and people perform necessary duties because they want to, or they have an interest in it, or for public service.

I'd even be surprised if the human race turned out to be couch potatoes waited on by robots.   I reckon people would still work, learn, invent, explore, create and achieve - not because they have to to pay a mortgage, but because they have the time and freedom to follow their curiosity.

[nomadpete]

I gave you a 'funny' emoticon because there isn't a 'we all wish' emoticon

[willedoo]

I think Karl Marx hoped for something similar to that. With human nature being what it is, the only way his system could survive was to remove choice and a lot of freedom. I think for a utopian society to be possible, the whole human race would need a new brain. Or with the advances in technology, in the future they might be able to re-programme our brains to think like that. They've already had some success with computer/brain interfacing, so it's likely possible one day.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Not just Marxist society willedoo. We see the "safety" word being used all the time to remove freedoms.

When I think of how free I was in my youth compared to now, I feel sorry for the youth of today. My parents rarely knew where I was , but now I see the lines of cars as the kids are  collected from school...  that was unheard of in my day.

As for flying, well the policing has become extreme. Soon I worry, we will have to have transponders just so "they" can police us more completely.

This too will be justified with the "s" word.

Well I guess that there will be jobs there for being watchers and informants.