Dilbert_X
The X stands for
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This is apt

Diversify: it’s common investment advice, the economists’ version of not putting all your eggs in the one basket.

Yet as a country we’re not heeding it. Our standard of living increasingly hinges on commodities — now two-thirds of our exports — whose prices in the long run are destined to fall. The recent boom that has temporarily so enriched us is unusual and unlikely to last as population growth — and China’s economy — inevitably slows. In fact, commodity prices are down by 50 per cent across the century to 2007, according to Reserve Bank analysis.

Meanwhile our manufacturing sector has shrivelled to 7 per cent of the workforce, far below comparable nations. The number of manufacturing jobs collapsed by 30 per cent to 729,000 across the decade to 2016. It is likely to have tumbled further since.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commen … 0ccd8d3ed2
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uziq
Member
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manufacturing is contracting globally, at least, so it's not a uniquely australian disaster.

we need to figure out something outside of the infinite growth model of capitalist production.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
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There's a steady move to artisan products and local production, the fucking hipster generation is driving it.
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SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+634|3689
Green haired hipsters in Brooklyn nonetheless
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
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Dr Henry argued the main reason productivity was declining was a lack of business investment in new technology and equipment that increased the efficiency of their workforce.

"Business investment today as a proportion of gross domestic product is almost as low as it was in the depths of the early-90s recession," he said.

"The reason why Australia celebrates a current account surplus today is because business investment is so weak, we should not be celebrating this, this is sending us a signal that there is something desperately wrong in Australia."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-06/ … n=business
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SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
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You guys should cut taxes on the rich and corporations in order to get them to invest more.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Dilbert_X
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There are huge incentives for business investment, R+D gets a 125% tax break, tax isn't the issue.
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Dilbert_X
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Very rarely in journalism do you come across a potential disaster that could jeopardise the nation for a generation.

I have access to information that has made me realise that the proposed submarine project is not a normal mistake that can be managed — it is a national disaster.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation … 1adede153b
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Larssen
Member
+99|1857
It's subscriber only, those are the only sentences that are visible.

Wouldn't surprise me though if you only ever read the first two sentences in an article to form your opinion. It would explain so much.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
I don't form my opinions from docudramas.

It was open, seems to have gone subscriber, lucky I copied it

Very rarely in journalism do you come across a potential disaster that could jeopardise the nation for a generation.

I have access to information that has made me realise that the proposed submarine project is not a normal mistake that can be managed — it is a national disaster.

I invite the three most senior members of the cabinet — Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg and Mathias Cormann (I know and respect all three) to read what I have discovered and then use non-defence people to check me out.

I do not believe my whistleblower is wrong because he or she is acting in the national interest, particularly in the light of the recent events at NATO and in Turkey.

READ MORE: Subs could be switched to nuclear | Defence under pressure over submarines, JSF | Navy chief’s submarine cost bombshell | Politics threatens to force disastrous submarine decision

But to convey the sheer magnitude of this disaster I have to take you back to the Turnbull government’s decision to go with the French submarine plan. Previously former PM Tony Abbott had a nodding agreement with the Japanese prime minister to buy the Japanese submarine. However, down the line staff in the Japanese submarine operation did not want to do such a deal and so undermined the efforts of those at the top. The Japanese ceased to be a contender. The Germans became hot favourites and offered Australia an industrial network to support their vessel.

But the French brilliantly presented a most exciting and tantalising concept — Australia would join them to develop a new submarine and together we would be regional leaders in submarine development. The negotiation was brilliantly masterminded by the French. They concluded that the legendary and tough head of the French Naval industrial operation Hervé Guillou was the wrong person on push the deal through the Australian defence establishment.

So, Marie-Pierre de Bailliencourt was made his deputy and was given the job of selling the deal to Australians. She did the job superbly.

When the deal was concluded Hervé Guillou took control and Marie-Pierre de Bailliencourt went elsewhere.

I have now discovered that the deal the French and Hervé Guillou put on the table was very different to that proposed by Marie Pierre de Bailliencourt.

Defence officials may dispute this but, in essence, under the new deal the French do most of the designing and if we don’t like it we pay for the alteration. This was graphically illustrated when we wanted different lighting to that proposed by the French. Different lighting could be arranged by the French but Australia would pay. The idea of an exciting joint development has been trashed.

But it gets much worse.

Our defence systems are linked or at least compatible to the United States. The US defence and security people have never trusted the French since US defence secrets were leaked to Russia during the reign of President de Gaulle. That distrust has grown in the decades that followed and intensified when the base design of the Australian submarine was leaked prior to the deal. The Americans demanded that it only supply its combat system to the project if the US had a separate deal with Australia.

And so, the submarine development is two deals — one for the basic design between Australia and France and one for the combat system between Australia and the US. And the French will have restricted access to the combat system in the submarine they are designing.

It might have worked had the original French proposal of a true partnership been carried out.

but it is a hopeless arrangement when it is basically a French project. And remember this is a high-risk new technology submarine so with two “warring” suppliers there will be an endless blame game.

Australia might have hoped that, over time, the US distrust of France would fade. Last week’s NATO clash between Presidents Trump and Macron showed the distrust is getting worse, not better. And the US is very sensitive to its technology which was illustrated when Turkey bought antimissile systems from Russia. The US immediately cancelled its Joint Strike Fighter deal with Turkey.

The Australian government announced in 2016 that it would be paying $50 billion, inflation protected, for the submarines. By 2018 that had blown out to $90 billion.

At that time, with help, I estimated that the final costs over the life of the submarines, including maintenance etc, would be around $225 billion.

I expected that defence chiefs would deny such an incredibly high estimate. Two years later they have now confirmed my estimate, which makes me suspect that the real costs are much higher. Given the looming chaos that I have described we conceivably could be looking at $400 billion to $500 billion, although that is pure speciation.

In the original deal the first submarine would be operational in 2034 but the contract is already six months late and I am told the real delay is around 18 months to two years. Given what is ahead I think 2040 is an optimistic estimate for the first operational submarine.

In the next 15 or 20 years there will be incredible developments in warfare and technology.

Already we may have missed the lithium battery which the French are offering the Dutch.

Josh Frydenberg is right to be proud of his budget surplus. But he is sitting on a $225 billion disaster.

Frydenberg, Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann can escape the contract with what in comparison to $220 billion is a token break-free. And there are better options.
I also read this, quite slowly and I had to look up some of the words but I did.
https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/ … -australia

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2019-12-12 03:16:56)

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uziq
Member
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everything i read about the australian PM truly makes me wonder how so many countries are living in the Age of Stupid when we as a species can least afford it.

trump, boris, morrison, all are somehow cut from the same cloth of 'blokey' appeal, pandering to old voters and winning fealty from politicians who 'trust their own', i.e. a rich old bloke.

really makes you wonder if all these irate feminist lesbians poisoning australia's schools system weren't actually onto something with all that talk of 'toxic masculinity'. these people are the epitome of stupid men.

then of course you have your garden-variety 'strong man' figures: putin, orban, erdogan, any number of ridiculous pantomime duce's in italy ...
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
I do believe irate feminist lesbians would actually be worse, maybe thats whats swung it back towards the oaf candidate for the average voter.

Trump's female supporters don't seem to give a shit that he bought up pageants so he could ogle and harass young girls, so its not just the male vote.

Does seem to be a global trend though, people want their guy to represent them and intellectualism seems to be on the way out, finally.
When half the population is old, miserable and self-centred thats what you get.

So we have rich frat-boys in the West pitted against totalitarian thugs in the East. Except the frat-boys are in the pockets of the eastern thugs.
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Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Climate change
Lack of preparation
PMs Top priority: Religious discrimination - which is to say more rights for the religious to discriminate against the non-religious
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-austr … -explained
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Dilbert_X
The X stands for
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Also remember that the whole 'blokey' thing is entirely an act.

This is the last guy I can think of who pulled it off well.

https://www.biography.com/.image/t_share/MTY2NjgyOTkyNTMyNTMwMjMx/gettyimages-2637237.jpg
What a friendly face, smiley eyes with the crinkles at the corners, great moustache.
He should have a cheery blokey name like Bob, or Bill, or Sam.
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uziq
Member
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every public persona is an act. have you not even read your basic sartre? we're way past that. everyone is au fait with 'performativity', tres tres postmoderne etc etc ...

the point is that we are regressing to a stupider phase of politics.

i'm not sure stalin really was the macho exemplar of that era. mussolini is the obvious example of a ruler who ruled by braggadocio. stalin seemed quite silent and demure by comparison, hardly an imposing presence. you can't be a blokey 'big man' when people have to stifle a laugh at your accent.

uziq
Member
+492|3422
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/decembe … ia-burning

...

Climate change denialism is such a mainstream part of Australian political life – and an accepted position across our dominant media corporation, News Corp – that it’s surprising to hear government officials speak with any candour about global warming. In mid-November, with bushfire conditions graded as ‘catastrophic’, public servants from the New South Wales Department of Planning, Industry and Environment attended a conference on adapting to climate change. They were directed not to discuss the links between accelerating temperatures and the bushfires raging around them. ‘It’s an absolute disgrace to be talking about climate change while we have lost lives and assets,’ the state’s deputy premier said.

We’re yet to discover whether the effects of these firestorms – conservative rural communities’ sense that they are living under siege; the blanketing of capital cities in smoke; the immense financial cost – will force a long-term shift in climate policy. Morrison, when he’s been available for questioning, has been forced to backpedal on his claims that Australia’s carbon emissions have no connection to the fires. Now he acknowledges that climate change is a factor, ‘amongst many other issues’.

Morrison is the most religious prime minister this deeply secular nation has ever elected. On the May election trail, News Corp showed footage of a cap-wearing ‘ScoMo’ shearing sheep or turning sausages at local barbecues. But another video, taken with Morrison’s permission, showed him joining enthusiastically with the worshippers talking in tongues at the service he attends every Sunday at Sydney’s Horizon Church. Horizon preaches a strain of Pentecostalism that believes the End Times are coming (‘for the lord will execute judgment by fire’ etc.). Could it be that at some level the PM counts God’s will, if not his wrath, among the ‘other issues’ causing the fires?

...
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
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Stalin was actually short. Only 5'5. He also didn't have a tough guy mystique to him. His public image was fatherly and caring. Look at the propaganda from the period. It's always about him looking out for the kids and helping people. Papa Stalin. He wasn't a solider like Hitler and Mussolini which is probably why they were more tough guy figures. Brutes but to their credit they at least fought unlike Trump or Johnson.

After Stalin's death the people who worked with him said he always coached his plans in communist terms. He was definitely a paranoid dictator but he always tried to justify his actions to his subordinates by appealing to their ideology instead of outright threats and force. You knew the force was there when you dealt with him but he wouldn't rub it in your face. When he ordered you to kill someone who threatened him he also wanted you to believe it was the right thing to do instead of just a job or order. He understood the art of being subtle that again the leaders of the U.K. and U.S. don't get.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX

uziq wrote:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/december/australia-burning

...

Climate change denialism is such a mainstream part of Australian political life – and an accepted position across our dominant media corporation, News Corp – that it’s surprising to hear government officials speak with any candour about global warming. In mid-November, with bushfire conditions graded as ‘catastrophic’, public servants from the New South Wales Department of Planning, Industry and Environment attended a conference on adapting to climate change. They were directed not to discuss the links between accelerating temperatures and the bushfires raging around them. ‘It’s an absolute disgrace to be talking about climate change while we have lost lives and assets,’ the state’s deputy premier said.

We’re yet to discover whether the effects of these firestorms – conservative rural communities’ sense that they are living under siege; the blanketing of capital cities in smoke; the immense financial cost – will force a long-term shift in climate policy. Morrison, when he’s been available for questioning, has been forced to backpedal on his claims that Australia’s carbon emissions have no connection to the fires. Now he acknowledges that climate change is a factor, ‘amongst many other issues’.

Morrison is the most religious prime minister this deeply secular nation has ever elected. On the May election trail, News Corp showed footage of a cap-wearing ‘ScoMo’ shearing sheep or turning sausages at local barbecues. But another video, taken with Morrison’s permission, showed him joining enthusiastically with the worshippers talking in tongues at the service he attends every Sunday at Sydney’s Horizon Church. Horizon preaches a strain of Pentecostalism that believes the End Times are coming (‘for the lord will execute judgment by fire’ etc.). Could it be that at some level the PM counts God’s will, if not his wrath, among the ‘other issues’ causing the fires?

...
Yup, we have a PM who sends 'thoughts and prayers' then fuck off to Hawaii.
Australia is run by jews and evangelicals, the White House is controlled by jews and evangelicals, we're fucked.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics … chdog-says

And the average Australian would cut his own balls off before he gave up his Hilux. Easier to deny climate change than face hard and horrible choices, like doing the school run in a midsize sedan or not eating steak every day.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2019-12-20 15:18:55)

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Dilbert_X
The X stands for
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I think Australia might just be waking up to global warming, even the letters page of 'The Australian' is starting to shift.

Key points:
The report found leaving the game in December would subject players and fans to "unprecedented levels of extreme heat" by 2060
The Australian Conservation Foundation is using the research to urge Cricket Australia to advocate for stronger climate change action
Cricket Australia said it was committed to building its leadership on the issue of climate change

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-27/ … s/11827720
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uziq
Member
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didn't a news report state that heavily fire polluted air over sydney is going to be 'the new normal', which means that the level of respiratory illness and birth defects is going to rocket? is sydney going to become the first large-scale metropolis seriously affected by climate change?
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
The forests will be thinned out - problem solved.

Or more likely the fires will burn out, everyone will breathe a sigh of relief and sit back for 5-10 years as the trees and brush regrow, the fires will start up and everyone will say "how did we get into this situation again? why oh why didn't somebody do something?"
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uziq
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i’ll be surprised if we don’t see eco-terrorism become a thing. what fun it would be if figures got assassinated and big corporate targets bombed. all by white people with dreadlocks and second homes. the future is looking very bright. the future is orange.

the infinite political wisdom of australia. didn’t you vote in this lot because you were all shit scared about brown people arriving on boats? and they sold you some soothing line about concentration camps on faraway Manus? dilbert, did you vote in the end-of-days Christian nut job? it’s almost poetic.

Last edited by uziq (2020-01-01 01:10:42)

Dilbert_X
The X stands for
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I did vote Liberal at the Federal level I think, the Labour alternative actually being worse. At least the flow of undocumented migrants has been cut, and the general intake also cut significantly - Australia just doesn't need any more Uber drivers or Deliveroo operatives.
At the local level I did vote for purple-hair girl.

Oh and at the cricket I was five seats away from the Transport minister. I was going to give him the benefit of my wisdom but my sister distracted me with nachos.

People are just waking up to climate change, Morrison's 'thoughts and prayers' approach not washing any more.
But probably nothing will happen, people will rebuild their matchwood homes in forests, the fuel load will rebuild itself and it will all happen again in 5-10 years.

Not that it really matters, over the same period during which Australia has reduced its emissions China and India have almost doubled them, and they still have a long way to go.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2020-01-01 04:38:45)

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uziq
Member
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lol it's really too fucking good to me that this moron got voted in by the 'quiet australians', i.e. the racist anglo-saxon lot, because they didn't want any more muslims in brisbane, mate. meanwhile he's an end-of-days nut job. you voted for a deeply religious christian armageddonist because you're that afraid of brown Uber drivers -- dilbert, the anti-religion crusader. i am laughing out loud.

china has made huge investment in solar. isn't the investment cost/capital return of solar now lower than all carbon-based fuels? their production cost has plummeted with increases in tech in the last 10 years. the problem is that all the deep investment and infrastructure deals for your giant coal mines were signed years ago, and all your politicians are deep in their pockets. you can stop prattling on about china, though. i don't see why the worldwide spectacle, in every paper and news station, of your continent on fire can't be a symbolic turning-point for your nation to start taking the lead. meanwhile the last few climate summits/resolutions have been exclusively stymied by the likes of your politicians. very odd!

can't remember where i read it, but aren't you up there with saudi arabia now in terms of economic dependency on fossil fuel? easier to blame the peasants in the global third world, i guess.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
The Labor guy promised to raid people's pension funds - hardly a surprise he didn't get elected.

But for his personality, long history of corruption and some really stupid ideas also from him Labor would have waltzed in.
But like Corbyn he refused to put party and country before his ego so Labor lost.
Not that he had any great climate plan, Shorten supported coal-mining more fervently than the Liberals.
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