peterc005 I originally took that as a tongue in cheek comment and found myself nodding along as I read it, but on reflection I think you're deadly serious? Australia's car industry had been on the ropes for decades and anyone who thinks that you can compete in a small market with the sort of productivity they had, is dreaming. As for the whole negative gearing furphy, although some of the big end of town have done very nicely out of Sydney of late, there are a hell of a lot of investors out there wondering just when these amazing gains are going to kick in. Ask anyone who got suckered into the mining towns after the initial steep increases, how that property investing thing is going for them. I don't like seeing Australian firms, farms etc sold off either, but that's global business - no shortage of Aussie money in the US or UK for that matter.