DON'T LET THE SOFT ECONOMY RHETORIC GET TO YOU

I have a favour to ask.
Enjoy life a bit, go out and spend some money on something created in Australia.
For example, walk to a local restaurant and enjoy the fruits of some Chef’s labours swished down by a local red whilst chatting to your partner, the waiter and indeed other people enjoying life. How hard can it be?
I am told by the media who feed on malcontent that the USA is currently and technically bankrupt, chunks of Europe are in similar doo doo and the world will end next year on the 21st of December. Even if Mr and Mrs Mayan are wrong about the world ending, the pundits tell us we are destroying it at an ever increasing rate and we will all be under water when the polar caps melt trying to get away from ozone depleted atmospheres which singe our diseased and pot-marked noses. One so called economist even said the other night on radio that it is a good thing that we are not spending any money but saving instead because we will need it when everything goes belly up. Probably the same bloke who said Australia was going to sink with the GFC. [Pun intended!]
Platitudes like ‘soft economy’ and ‘we need to ...’ and ‘it’s time’ and ‘we will need it’ are all designed to convince us that the writer/speaker is in control and dynamic and understanding but actually unable to achieve anything themselves because of those evil ‘others’ holding them down.
I am an economic idiot but even given my challenged understanding I am aware that an economy is based on money being circulated through trade. If for some reason the money stops going around then the repercussions are immediate; just like the falling dominos. Using the restaurant analogy, if not enough people go out to eat then the restaurant closes down which means a bunch of people lose their jobs and possibly a gaggle of suppliers lose the money owing to them and the landlord loses the value of his/her investment. The ex-employees don’t spend any discretionary money and worse, because those suppliers have sustained bad debts through no fault of their own they also delay paying their bills to their primary producers who in turn run out of money to be able to go to one of the few restaurants left. Then the utility companies suffer bad debts through people being unable to pay for their electricity and jack the prices to the remaining few so they can survive. Those remaining few now come under increased pressure and also stop spending which means all the clothing shops fall over as do all the luggage shops, airlines and all discretionary spending type shops.
Now, because everyone has run out of money there is no tax income for the government to run our country and we can’t pay social welfare to the ex restaurateurs, suppliers, primary producers and ex luggage shop owners and we as a country start to default on loans, lose our credit rating and suffer ever increasing interest on those loans because of the drop in credit rating with associated risks for the lenders. Anarchy develops, the streets turn to battlefields and fresh water is sold on the black market to people reduced to peering through dirty and diseased dreadlocks using monosyllable utterances like ‘me’ and ‘food’ and ‘want’.
And to think, all this could have been avoided by going out to dinner, enjoying life and feeling good about paying taxes. How hard can it be?
Australia is in great shape and leading the world in many aspects yet the doom and gloom merchants [everyone with a mouth and a microphone] continue to create fear. Why? Because it’s easier to be gloomy rather than positive and you can blame others for doom but must take responsibility for being upbeat. With apologies to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, ignore the ‘O, woe is me’ and the ‘it’s time’ people and go out to dinner.
Spend a bit of money and watch the smiles develop.

Political leadership

“Given that Australia is an economic powerhouse with lowish debt and an economy that is booming, in contra-distinction to the rest of the world, why are people afraid to go out the door and spend some of their disposable income with the net result being that Australia is just treading water when we should lead the world[?]”.
The answer can only be a lack of confidence by Australians in Australia. Our dollar is strong so the rest of the world thinks Australia is a good bet; yet apparently we don’t think the same.
Why do we have this lack of confidence? I believe the reason is that we have lost faith in our leaders to actually lead this country; even from a position of strength.
Our Prime Minister is all over the place with little in the way of clear thinking or direction, the leader of the opposition is negative to the point of absurdity and the Greens believe they should decide on just who are the proper and correct people to lead our biggest companies!
No wonder we have lost faith.
We need leadership, not rhetoric, stupidity or platitudes. Watch Q&A and you will see the worst of the politicking, watch Question Time and you will see mentally pre-pubescent fools trying to be King of the castle, watch the media and you will see politicians well out of their depth.
Where are the leaders such as John Howard, Paul Keating, Malcolm Fraser or Bob Hawke. These were leaders who could galvanise a country behind a common objective no matter which side of politics you believed in.
A leader is not blind Freddy dealing with minutia but a person with strategic vision and enough oomph to be at the pointy end of the debate.
Too many people with too much to say about nothing.
If this wasn’t so urgent it would be laughable and pathetic.
Jon Langevad
9/27a Brighton Road St Kilda 3182
96461101

The Mining Tax

I wonder what it’s like to be a labour back bencher in the Rudd government when their leader is out of control?
How dare he contemplate a ‘super tax’ profit from specific businesses touted by him as ripping Australian’s off just because they have the temerity to be profitable. This is beyond big brother, beyond Maoism and beyond Stalinism – it an affront to every Australian living in our free enterprise supposedly Westminster based democratic society.
I heard a lame excuse from the Prime Minister that it was because the taxed companies were foreign owned, successful and indeed mining Australian natural resources. Canada is champing at the bit just itching to garner investors dismissed by Rudd as I bet are many other countries. How would Rudd explain it if other countries taxed Australian companies profits in their country just because they were profitable? His actions are bordering on nationalising a countries infrastructure through financial stealth – this happens only during war or if your name happens to be Mugabe. This amounts to taxing management success.
There is no doubt that foreign investment in our country needs to be curtailed but this should be controlled by controlling the resource and who owns it, not by taxing the managers or the shareholders. So much for self funded retires using dividends from ‘blue chip’ stocks as a living wage.
This man is ignores climate change because other countries ignore the issues, retreats Australia to the back of the pack by his actions when we should lead the world and now he bolts from proper controlled foreign investment by suicidal profit nationalisation.
Get rid of this Government.

World without atmosphere

There is only one way to reduce nasty emissions in our democratic and hedonistic society.
Forget the global warming / climate change arguments because it will take decades for people to get on board to produce any meaningful results. Forget the politicians because their agenda is to stay in power. Forget the cost of investing with low emission providers because a world without atmosphere will eventually make the cost of non-investment irrelevant.
People will only respond to change for two reasons. Firstly, because they are physically threatened by immediate catastrophe – this will not happen because climate change is seen as beyond our life span. Secondly because people will gain an immediate financial benefit from using low emission providers.
This is so important that our Government needs to focus on just one thing - making the cost for the average person of selecting low emission providers cheaper than selecting high emission providers.
People will change within days. Simple.
Cut the endless bureaucracy and debate and use any excuse and make it happen immediately.
Australia must make an immediate and massive investment in solar power, wind power, wave power, thermal power and indeed any other renewable energy source so that prices immediately fall below dirty power. Partnership, develop, subsidise, support and ROI.
Let people change without thinking about anything other than improving their lifestyle through and by saving energy dollars and it will happen.
Let the northern hemisphere self destruct but let’s keep beautiful Australia, beautiful.

CLIMATE CHANGE

There is so much politicking on this issue it is unbelievable. Surly, it is no surprise that when you get a few thousand politicians and bureaucrats into one spot, nothing happens other than self promotion. Remember these people like to talk, don’t like decisions and will run a mile from responsibility and accountability.
The whole process shows a lack of understanding of human nature and why we change.
There is no doubt that we need to remove catastrophic emissions as we need to remove a dependence on non-renewable energy. Even if you believe the climate change sceptics, this holds truth for our collective future.
There are three ways to get people to support the required changes. Make inappropriate emissions and the use of non-renewable energy illegal and subject to goal time. Secondly, give people an incentive to use renewable energy. Thirdly by shaming people into changing.
Option 1 is good for business which hides behind corporate fire walls. Option 2 is a commercial decision by savvy operators in that wind, thermal, solar and hydro power can and should be supported by everyone so that the high emissions and/or non-renewable energy suppliers are financially undercut and sent bankrupt. The third option is for everyone but needs to be fair dinkum.
The power of the market is the only thing which will change the current situation!
Everyone, even politicians, will choose to buy energy from suppliers who do not chuck rubbish into the air and actively and transparently pursue renewable energy sources providing they are commercially equitable. We as a nation cannot support a ‘dig it up’ culture in the face of obvious climate dysfunction and we as a nation can and should lead the world by example.
It could be argued that Australia has the world’s strongest economy and are in a position to lead the world. What’s stopping us? To say we shouldn’t be first is rubbish and denigrates us as Australians.
If every Australian was to show the world just how serious we are by giving $50 per year for 3 years to removing our dependence on non-renewable energy sources it would shame the USA, China and India and effectively remove their politicking positional strategies. Imagine a world-publicised event where Australians are seen as aware, savvy and generous of their time and money. Wow.
We are a successful and fantastic nation of only 21 million people and are in a position to lead the world’s attitudes and actions.
All we need is the impetus driven by a brilliant, serious, successful, known, respected and devoted Australian.