In the vacuous expanse that is Australian policy debate, building defence vessels creates jobs while building hospitals creates debt.
Using taxpayer money to build a centre from which to “promote defence industry competitiveness and guide the priorities across defence industry” secures jobs for decades, but trying to attract car industry investment is a quaint idea that will never work. Yet while such a contradictory approach makes no economic sense, it makes perfect electoral sense.
The words quoted comprise one paragraph by Richard Denniss, chief economist at the Australia Institute.
His words are most especially worth reading if you happen to be an Australian citizen, currently enduring a “marathon” election campaign – a marathon by Australian standards, but unimaginably brief by United States American standards.
At least by Australian standards, this campaign has set new standards of inanity.
Published in the May 2016 issue of The Monthly, Denniss’s article is headlined Crunch time.
He writes specifically about Australia – most especially about the “policy failure” that has destroyed Australia’s car-making industry/capacity.
His analysis, however, is pertinent/challenging to many countries and to many questions/notions/preconceptions about “free” markets and governmental “interventions”.
Click to read the full article.
Coming up next week on Pelican Yoga… a photographic essay that is not “Tolkienesque”, but which will take you to “Mount Doom”!