competing with China

[miriam_e]

Out stupid "leaders" have this insane belief that we need to compete directly with China and that the way to become competitive is to reduce working conditions and wages of workers to those of third world countries. That is plain crazy though, as just a moment's thought will show.

We have many advantages here that the people in China and India don't have and the very reason they are willing to work in lousy conditions and low wages is to gain access to a similar level of lifestyle and wealth. Why in heaven's name would we abandon that? Why would we abandon progress?

We should be working to maintain and improve our lifestyle, not deliberately wrecking it. We should be increasing the level of education, improving working conditions, increasing leisure hours. These are the very things that the third world want and are working towards. We should also be working in that direction and maintaining our lead. We can never hope to compete with China and India on their terms -- low wages and godawful cheap working conditions. To attempt it is economic and social suicide.

The unimaginative bean-counters tell us that we have no choice. They tell us that money is flowing out of our country into the third world countries too fast. That we will have to tighten our belts and get ready for lean times ahead. But reducing wages and destroying working conditions here won't affect that in the long run, and will actually worsen it. Our only hope is to build upon what we can do best and sell that to the rest of the world. For a long time tourism has been Australia's biggest money-earner, but politicians still treat us as just a primary producer -- mining and farming. We have some of the best medical researchers in the world; our solar research is among the best on the planet; we need to expand on our intellectual and creative capital, which is up there with the best anywhere. As Richard Florida points out, the biggest potential for the future is in the creative classes. But our blasted government keeps strangling our learning and research opportunities and making those sectors less and less competitive.

Can we please get someone in government that knows how to lead and govern, not simply lie, cheat, and line the pockets of their wealthy and powerful pals?

Comments

[hestia.livejournal.com]

This is why conservatives should not be voted for. They react against progress irrationally. Money-grubbing arseholes in multinational corporations know that and use it to pursuade them to return the first world to nineteenth century conditions which of course will benefit them enormously at the expense of everybody else in society.

This is evil.

I really liked the Keating government because it didn't see Australia in such narrow terms. Even though Keating did call this "the arse end of the world" in some respects he was right. There are many in this country who have issues with Australia having self-esteem and are determined to reduce us to mere colonial children in spite of how neglected and exploited colonies tend to be. It really pisses me off how there are so many unthinking ignorant fuckheads here who think that infantilised behaviour = virtue. John Howard is definately one of them.

[hestia.livejournal.com]

Who is Richard Florida?

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

He is brilliant. He gave a couple of talks on Radio National some time back in which he outlined how important creativity is in the modern first world. The cities with the most cultural variety are precisely those that are the biggest economic earners. That is places with the greatest variety of restaurants, number of immigrants, with the healthiest gay male and lesbian population, the most artists, writers, musicians, architects, scientists, etc. are the boomtowns. And it is not just that those people flock to booming places. A concentration of creative people causes a boom in the local economy. One of the things he said that made me laugh aloud is that sports stadiums never attracted creative people to areas -- it has always been museums, art galleries, theatres, restaurants, parks, and gardens.

He wrote a book called The Rise of the Creative Class.

Book Talk had a very cool interview with him in March last year. Almost all the transcripts of their broadcasts are online. This one is at:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/booktalk/stories/s1072885.htm
If you want I can snailmail you the original broadcast audio. Email me your postal address if you want it.
miriam at werple dot net dot au

He was also interviewed on The Comfort Zone (a discontinued Radio National program). Unfortunately they don't have a transcript online, but I also have the audio of that program and can include it if I send you the audio of the Book Talk episode.

Richard Florida's Creative Class website is at:
http://www.creativeclass.org

[usuakari.livejournal.com]

So, when were you planning on entering politics? Come up with a few more geberal themes like that and I'll vote for you.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Heheheheh :)
ugly + bent sexuality = political loser

Also I hate politics. I'd curl up and die at the first round of cruel lies.

I'd love to see politics go the way of child labor -- rooted out and stopped wherever possible because it is socially embarrassing and disgusting to all right-minded people.

We actually have a better way. The opensource movement has shown that. But I don't know what it will take to displace the uber-rich, monstrously powerful groups that run politics (right-wing and left-wing). Maybe this is the time when we find that out. So many people are getting scared of what Bush is doing, and so many people are getting fed up with Howard taking Australia in exactly the wrong direction, they can surely only last just so long. Politicians now have standing in the community below that of used-car salesmen. That is important.

Interesting times we live in.

[usuakari.livejournal.com]

ugly + bent sexuality = political loser

Oh bollocks! Each on their own has held very few back. How many high level politicians would you regard as good looking? How many queer politicians are there? (A few out, and I suspect quite a few in the closet). The hitch is that 'ugly' + bent sexuality + female might present you with some interesting challenges.

I'd love to see politics go the way of child labor -- rooted out and stopped wherever possible because it is socially embarrassing and disgusting to all right-minded people.

Hmmmm... I suspect that politics is an inevitability when dealing with groups of more than one person, especially so when the numbers get big. I'd like to see significant reform of our political system, but I doubt we can do without it or root it out entirely. The direct (non-representational) democracy that I think would be an interesting experience has some elements in common with the open-source movement, so I think we're in agreement there.

Interesting times we live in.

Did you mean that in a good way, or the Chinses curse way? ;)

[j03j03.livejournal.com]

gov·ern·ment ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gvrn-mnt)
n.

The agency or apparatus through which a governing individual or body functions and exercises authority to lie, cheat, and line the pockets of their wealthy and powerful pals.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

If that was always the case we would have dispensed with it ages ago, but it has continued because we occasionally get very good and capable people in public office. Unfortunately the more common assholes lie to make themselves look as much like the goodies as possible.

I'm hoping that, with a new way becoming obvious now through the rise of the open source movement, we might just be able to get rid of politics. At the moment we need government to balance power against the giant corporations... unfortunately fascist governments become intimately allied with corporations and become an even worse threat to humanity. And our government is becoming worryingly fascist.

Dictionary definition of fascism:
fascism (fash·iz´em) n. 1. A philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerant nationalism.

[j03j03.livejournal.com]

right on.