Crazy Australians

[mistermack]

Australia is the world's biggest exporter of coal, and one of the worlds biggest exporter of Iron ore and other ores.

Does this seem crazy to anyone else? Why the fuck export all this coal, and all of those ores, when you could process it all in Oz and eventually ship about five percent of the tonnage at much higher prices?

Or is shipping millions of tons so cheap now, that it's cheaper to ship it, and pay lower wages in other countries to process it all?

[Hermit]

That has always astounded me too, but apparently the latter case obtains ever since Prime Minister Robert Menzies allowed base iron to be exported to Japan during the late 1930s. We got some of that back in the form of bullets, and "Ming" acquired another nickname: "Pig Iron Bob".

It's not just iron ore and coal either. We export woodchips and import photocopy paper, send wool to other countries and buy suits made in Italy and jumpers made in China. We have not had a locally based car manufacturing industry for many years now either, and once Ford and Holden (a subsidiary of General Motors) have finally wrapped up operations here by around 2016, we'll just have one sole car maker assembling vehicles here: Toyota. The height of absurdity, though, is that we also actually sell crude oil overseas even though we are a net importer of the stuff.

I cannot believe this is entirely due to labour costs or economy of scale. Labour is a minuscule proportion of total costs in all the above-mentioned industries these days. Tax perks, subsidies, regulatory chicanery and disguised tariff walls in other countries probably figure largely for this situation to exist. All those so-called free-trade agreements are a con.

Oh, and all our uranium goes overseas. Apart from a tiny reactor in the southwestern part of Sydney (for research purposes and the supply of isotopes needed in hospitals) we have no nuclear facilities whatsoever.

[pErvinalia]

It's obviously got to do with the economics of it all. If it was cheaper to do it here we probably would, I guess.

[Svartalf]

Dunno about cheaper, but it might generate more job to have a serious industrial base... we lost ours and that left whole regions completely devastated.

[pErvinalia]

It's cheaper in the short term, but yeah in the long term it destroys industries and communities.

[Clinton Huxley]

Whatever provides a short term bonus for investors will occur.

[mistermack]

Whatever provides a short term bonus for investors will occur.

That's why we have governments.
They can make a difference, if they get their finger out.

[Hermit]

Whatever provides a short term bonus for investors will occur.

That's why we have governments.
They can make a difference, if they get their finger out.

Ever thought who makes the politicians? Hint: It's not the voting public.

[cronus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse

[mistermack]

Whatever provides a short term bonus for investors will occur.

That's why we have governments.
They can make a difference, if they get their finger out.

Ever thought who makes the politicians? Hint: It's not the voting public.

I've often posted my answer to that. It's the press. Who makes the press? The people who use it.

So, by buying the Sun and the Times, or the Express or the Mail, or the Guardian etc etc, people are effectively voting Conservative in the UK. Or UKIP.

But they are far to dumb to work that out.

[cronus]

Whatever provides a short term bonus for investors will occur.

That's why we have governments.
They can make a difference, if they get their finger out.

Ever thought who makes the politicians? Hint: It's not the voting public.

I've often posted my answer to that. It's the press. Who makes the press? The people who use it.

So, by buying the Sun and the Times, or the Express or the Mail, or the Guardian etc etc, people are effectively voting Conservative in the UK. Or UKIP.

But they are far to dumb to work that out.

Half the population have a IQ below a hundred and 80% below 120 when self-actualisation becomes a meaningful property...