Why we should buy Australian

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Originally Posted by cuppabillytea

The playing field is not level and the greatest delusion that we labour under is that is level.

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I agree with you here, but I would argue that it's the lifestyle choices that cause us to be deluded into thinking the playing field is level. We are a very wealthy nation constantly crying poor / economic disaster looming... We bring it on ourselves and our collective greed will be our undoing.

Two pizzas and two coffees in Europe would cost around $15 and $3 respectively. In Australia it's $50 and $9!! No wonder our wages are so high.

Plus our government business incentives come in the form of low (or in many cases it is clear almost no) taxes. We general tax payers are already paying through the nose for low taxed big business. No wonder our wages are so high.

Housing costs in Australian cities have surpassed those of big cities across the globe. No wonder our wages are so high.

No wonder we can't compete. We are far too affluent to be on a level playing field.

Or our competition isn't affluent enough. Our affluence is merely indicative of our ability to share the pie more evenly.

All sorts of opinions here.
However, I believe that if people could buy Aussie products at anywhere near the price of imported goods, they would.
Sometimes, it's near impossible to find stuff that is Aussie made,..I mean clothing,...what's made in Aussie these days?
I'm surprised that anything can be made in Aussie these days, if it has to compete with O/S stuff,...the reason?.....COSTS.
THe cumulative "COSTS", wages, bureaucracy (have I spelt it right?..I don't think so!), conditions etc etc etc, are simply too high relative to O/S.
I'm amazed we can make anything. I know we can do anything, and do it well, ...........but costs will invariably knock us out.
Pickles.

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Originally Posted by Pickles2

All sorts of opinions here.
However, I believe that if people could buy Aussie products at anywhere near the price of imported goods, they would.
Sometimes, it's near impossible to find stuff that is Aussie made,..I mean clothing,...what's made in Aussie these days?
I'm surprised that anything can be made in Aussie these days, if it has to compete with O/S stuff,...the reason?.....COSTS.
THe cumulative "COSTS", wages, bureaucracy (have I spelt it right?..I don't think so!), conditions etc etc etc, are simply too high relative to O/S.
I'm amazed we can make anything. I know we can do anything, and do it well, ...........but costs will invariably knock us out.
Pickles.

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Not true.
You pick clothing, one of the highest labour cost items per unit as an example, get serious.
COMPLEX Manufacturing such as steel production and cars all require massive investment in equipment and infrastructure that has the end result of the labour component being between 3-7% of the items end cost. This means in a level playing field the transport and shipping costs should negate the difference. In reality, you make your exports not only tax free but throw in a 5-20% bonus, you drive the locals into the ground.
Yes true costs increase with things like emissions controls and OHSE, overseas producers often don't ,,,,,,
but what would you rather a clean enviroment and stuff costs a bit more, or dead zones stripped of any life by toxic crap being dumped/ emitted along with lots of deaths of workers?

Now let's see if I got this right, It's all our fault i.e., Australians are lazy, apathetic, don't want to work and have no ambitions.
Except of course those on here sprouting this crap.
You know, those ones that think, oh, I have a business, or I make more money so I am a class above.
It certainly can't be our Governments that sell off our assets, sign free trade agreements, scrap protective Tariffs, like the rest of our trading partners haven't done.
Sign agreements like the TPP that gives overseas companies the right to sue Australians if they don't get their way, or is it, when you get your heads out of the sand, it will be too late.
Can you imagine what would happen if I went over to China and decided I wanted to mine in their most productive food bowl, or anywhere for that matter.
They would kick my arse out of THEIR country, not here Governments for years have been allowing foreign interests to take CONTROL of our major ASSETS.
What happens if another WW starts, we are Girt by sea and we don't have a ship building/repair industry, no Merchant Navy, soon no Steel industry, where are we going to get the IMPORTS we actually need to survive. S'pose whatever government is in charge will just have to run up the white flag and going by the consensus in this thread so should we, Regards Frank.

Tank, what part of 'No Politics' are you having difficulty with?

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Originally Posted by Homestar

Tank, what part of 'No Politics' are you having difficulty with?

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Is it political when talking about other countries policies?

Here's a clothing issue for pickles. A few years ago the prisons for training etc where putting in tenders against imports to make various departments uniforms. It ended up being cheaper to buy the imported uniforms than rolls of materials to use to make them. This means that either the workers pay to cut stitch and sew the uniform and it's shipped for free or their govt provides incentives to employ more people and do complete jobs? Which do you think?

Frantic, my old C.A. "sparring partner"!!
Doesn't matter what I "think", or what you "think",....the fact is we cannot compete,.....for any number of reasons,.....yours would be very different to mine, but in the end mate,...for any number of reasons, "We just can't do it".
Pickles.

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Originally Posted by Tank

Now let's see if I got this right, It's all our fault i.e., Australians are lazy, apathetic, don't want to work and have no ambitions.
Except of course those on here sprouting this crap.
You know, those ones that think, oh, I have a business, or I make more money so I am a class above.
It certainly can't be our Governments that sell off our assets, sign free trade agreements, scrap protective Tariffs, like the rest of our trading partners haven't done.
Sign agreements like the TPP that gives overseas companies the right to sue Australians if they don't get their way, or is it, when you get your heads out of the sand, it will be too late.
Can you imagine what would happen if I went over to China and decided I wanted to mine in their most productive food bowl, or anywhere for that matter.
They would kick my arse out of THEIR country, not here Governments for years have been allowing foreign interests to take CONTROL of our major ASSETS.
What happens if another WW starts, we are Girt by sea and we don't have a ship building/repair industry, no Merchant Navy, soon no Steel industry, where are we going to get the IMPORTS we actually need to survive. S'pose whatever government is in charge will just have to run up the white flag and going by the consensus in this thread so should we, Regards Frank.

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Yes Tank , as much as it pains me to say that , I believe we are heading that way. In general people in this country want to work less hours for more $$ and want all the entitlements to go with it, to afford it businesses have to charge more and so the snowball starts.
In my business I have seen first hand many sides of the industry go offshore because no one wants to do that hard manual labour style work. It has become cheaper to import fishing gear into Australia than can be made here.
Most countries we compete against don't have a welfare system like we do , and they don't pay the high wages we pay.


Blame the government as much as you like , but we as a nation have contributed to the demise of local business because we want to pay as little as possible for everything we buy , not worrying about where it comes from, how many local jobs it will cost , as long as its cheap


Cheers Ean

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Originally Posted by MrLandy

Our 'sovereignty as a nation' has only existed for 100 years or so. It is a figment of the majority's imagination, a contrivance overlaid on hundreds of stolen nations right across the continent.

Land Rovers aren't Australian made.

It's a quaint idea that the world respects borders. Refugees welcome I say.

Humanity before lifestyle.

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This exactly.

One of the criticisms about the recent TPP, was that while Australia gets very little long term economic benefit, Vietnam is expected get get about 30% growth. I actually think this is a very good thing. Vietnam is one of the poorest countries in the world per capita (a remnant of communism and closed borders for decades) and if this agreement will help lift millions of Vietnamese out of poverty, the TPP has got to be better value than spending billions of dollar in aid, and costs us nothing cash wise.

What it does for us long term is provides a growing middle class in Asia that will want the sorts of products and services that are becoming very good at providing - financial services, education, training, engineering design.

Manufacturing did great things for us in helping our nation develop. We don't need it any more, not in a significant way.