On Mon, 4 May 2009 at 11:14:23 +1000 Tom Koltai wrote:
> ...
> We already have the "Buy Australian" government scheme. I think as a
> nation we have to say that isnt quite going to cut it anymore.
>
> My suggestion is a simple one.
>
> If every Australian asks just one question of every salesman, shop
> assistant, reseller at the point of purchase:
>
> i.e.: Excuse me - was this made in Australia?
>
> It will do a lot more than if we ask the Government to implement a
> tarrif regime.
>
> Obviously - most things arnt made in Australia - but to ensure that our
> childrens children have an economy, we need to make sure that at least
> some things will be made here.
>
> So actually - blogging about it is a good thing and tweeting it and
> facebook walling it.
> It might take us half a generation to get back to the manufactureing
> capacity that we had in the eighties - but it will be worth it.
One tiny problem: we aren't in the 1930s. At that time, when governments
did throw up protectionist barricades, they succeeded only in deepening
the Depression. The world is now far more interconnected than it was
then. I imagine that, if governments did now what they did then, the
damage would be worse.
The wisdom of the "Buy Australian" mentality is questionable. Let's
start thinking like a world, instead of a bunch of selfish nations.
--
David Boxall | ignorance more frequently
| begets confidence than does
| knowledge
| --Charles Darwin (introduction
| to 'The Descent of Man' 1871)