'Australian disease' has entered its terminal phase

[jpblue1000]

Originally Posted by mik

To me it is just plain wrong to sacrifice manufacturing, there will always be a need for this type of work, along with ditch diggers, truckys, process workers, welders ,steel workers, fitters, skilled and non skilled labor alike.

Originally Posted by mik

Even if we didn't have a need for them it is worth having these type of industries even if we have to pay a bit out of the pocket for it(although it is probably too late now.
I sound like a broken record but there will always be people that leave school that are not suited to being a rocket scientist, or a chemist, or etc,etc, and it is ten times better to to have people working spending money , paying taxes, feeling good about themselves adding value to the community and the economy.
have look at the ailments in society already, do we need more people on the dole, do we need more people not paying taxes? do we need more people in the poor house not spending money? and not forgetting a biggy, what commonly comes from people in poverty is crime,.................... also there is the loss of skills in the industry,
some old timers that have a life time of valuable skills (some of which will be lost forever)close to retirement will finish up and never work again.
A lot of jobs have already disappeared and continue to disappear due to automation and here we are killing off a big section of valuable assets for a few dollars.
I don't directly blame the current govco for this, this has been happening for years,
our pollies sacrificed this industry decades ago among others, and consecutive party's continued on with the party idealistic direction,
some of which stemmed from becoming UN lackeys giving other 3rd world countries 30% of our manufacturing ( and it is documented if you research it), and no one has lifted a finger to change direction .
despite certain politicians hypocritically now playing the blame game and crying crocodile tears , these very people and their party played a very big part in destroying what we have already lost over the years and what is yet to come, all parties played a part , and we let them !
The OP article has merit imo.

Those concerns you raise are not factored into the 'economic' model we perhaps blindly, inadvertently or some who have greeted with open arms follow. And as illustrated the ever reducing human input into the mechanised, automated world we become even less relevant as employees. But maintain importance as consumers. But the individual firm is operating as a singular entity, today, with no holistic vision of the future striving to maximise profit by employing the ‘best’ and most cost effective methods, blind/ed to the larger social issues you raise. Effectively we as individuals soldier on as cogs in a self consuming machine. Soon there wil be nobody working and therefore no one to sell too.
How it pans out is the $64 dollar question. I am sure there will be new jobs created that we haven’t thought of before, perhaps for today’s highly skilled people, the low - medium skilled may not be so lucky.
JP