[guzzis3]

In the 70's Australia made just about everything you could want. Then Hawke happened. He replaced collecting taxes from importers who wanted access to our market with taxpayer subsidies to keep now exposed and uncompetitive industries afloat.

The excuse has always been that ditching tariffs was necessary and beneficial, but look at the result. We went from a nation of factory workers and farmers to a nation of coffee pourers. Between 1984 and 1994 poverty and extreme wealth doubled in Australia carving share form the middle class. We went for being one of the most egalitarian nation on earth to just another economically stratified serfdom.

They let loose the pillagers (or entrepreneurs) and when the bubble burst the proletariat were left to pay for the mess.

Subsequent governments played the same tune. This wasn't Hawke's fault, nor any politician. The fault lays completely with the electorate.

All this bluster that we should do this or that is BS. No one is going to change their vote, nor are they going to change their spending habits. The reality is no one gives a f***. If Australians can't be bothered ticking a different box at election time what chance of any real change.

And China will pass. As soon as labour costs rise the multinationals will move on to the next cheap labour market. China exports will decline enough they will have to restructure to run on internal demand. They have already tried to do this but it isn't working and I can't see how it can in the future. They will become a bit player as Japan did, only worse because they don't have the discipline. In 20 years no one will be talking about China.