FDR actually turned recession into depression with his new deal policies...remarkably similar with what many politicians (especially US politicians) around the world are doing right now.
No one argues that a govt needs to go into a level of debt in a recession...its what that money is spent on that counts. By all means borrow and spend on infrastructure that will give Australia a competitive advantage when good times return. That creates employment now and creates wealth down the track...so we can pay off the debts in a reasonable time frame.
Dams and other water infrastructure that helps balance out our countries water supply and keeps this most basic need as cheap as possible...not privatisation by stealth which is what desal plants are...that will drive the price of water through the roof.
More and better coal fired power stations that will provide the second basic need, electricity, at the cheapest possible price to both private consumers and commercial consumers so they can make better profits and employ more people...not semi privatised power companies who's only answer is rationing power...and killing many old/sick people during extremes of both hot and cold weather because blackouts stop their aircon etc. Believe it, it happens. Certainly not treating our most bountiful competitive advantage - shedloads of cheap coal - as if it was pure poison.
Better roads, rail, port and airport (ALL kinds of airports) so that goods can be transported efficiently.
All the above means the other basic need, food, is cheaper. People can afford better quality...producers, retail etc are more profitable and can afford more staff.
Can you imagine these morons running the place back in the 50s...we would NEVER have had the Snowy River scheme just for starters.
The $900 checks mailed out to most people was grotesque waste. Same with the pink batts/schools and, if it actually goes ahead, so will the internet broadband plan. The ETS is the worst piece of legislation since Federation.
$100 billion I believe is the approximate number for the handouts/pink bats/BB internet.
It costs $2 billion to build a dam and maybe several billion more and we could have a pipe network connecting the northern water storage systems with the southern ones...probably 50 sydney harbours/annum of free fresh water to distribute from the wet north to the drier south. Imagine the employment this sort of modern day snowy scheme would create for the next several years at least - and the benefits to our society.
Anyone heard about that plan? Thought not.
Instead lets throw billions at the car industry - and subsidise the production of something few people in Australia want to buy at the moment let alone need...a new car. If the car industry disappears from our shores that is NOT the end of the world.
The Libs were not perfect...I agree they were getting a little too full of themselves...but Labor/Greens will fck this country just like every other time they have been in power.
As far as workchoices goes...well where did you get the idea that a good job/certain level of wages was a right?
We are born with certain rights...Life, Freedom, Free speech, a right to own property...that is it...everything else is aspirational. Economic 'rights', which are what you talk about when you rail against IR legislation like Workchoices, are not actually rights.
Last edited by Chimbu chuckles; 16th May 2009 at 17:32.