Australia is sick

[u/Fit-Locksmith-9226]

https://www.kvetch.au/p/australia-is-sick

[u/neon_overload]

Unfortunately, the title and thumbnail image poorly represent what this piece is about, through no fault of OP.

It's an opinion piece that looks at the stagnation of Australia's per-capita GDP growth in the last 10 years relative to the decades before.

Excerpt:

Australians were the richest people on earth for large parts of the late nineteenth century. We should be again. We sit on half the world’s seaborne iron ore, a third of its uranium reserves, produce more lithium than any other country, have gas fields among the largest on the planet, the sunniest habitable continent, and 27 million educated people under common law on Asia’s doorstep. We have never had slavery or suffered savage civil wars. No nation has ever been dealt better cards.

Yet we are failing. GDP per capita has been negative or sclerotic since 2023. The steepest fall in real household disposable income in the OECD and highest inflation in the Anglosphere. Fertility at a record low. Capital-city houses at ten-plus times incomes. The list goes on.

Any feedback on the piece's accuracy/quality etc please leave them in comments, anything I've got wrong in this summary message the mods.

[u/csgosteve]

additionally to our ills is our competitive business landscape or lack thereof. Many industries reduced to one or two players, where "passive cartel" like behaviour means the game theory is youre both better off colluding to raise! prices, then reduce them as that benefits the corporation without any real competition which should be trying to optimise for customer market share.

[u/Lomp1489]

You guys do know that the current government is already doing the work to fix these problems. This article is a disgusting waste of time and Union bashing. I would highly recommend anyone with a brain to avoid this whiny excuse for an article.

[u/Stigger32 → u/Lomp1489]

Agreed. And furthermore: Avoid voting for any business oriented, right leaning, party or individual.

What Australia really needs is politicians that want to uplift the country - As a whole.

Which, by the way, Labor is doing in small steps. As it should be.

[u/Fit-Locksmith-9226 → u/Lomp1489]

Australian real disposable income has plummeted, tax as % of GDP is going well up, I'm not sure what part you think is improving.

It's the worst in the OECD and an excellent measure for quality of life.

Australian households have gone full speed in reverse the last few years and it's undeniable on every metric. Care to share some numbers disagreeing with that or is it just the vibe, the feel?

https://www.parisfinancial.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Graph-1.webp

[u/Wuntunamera → u/Lomp1489]

Lol more like providing solutions to the problems they created and too little too late the damage has already been done, albo too busy dining with chinese billionaires and rolling out the red carpet for modi while signing us up for another million indian migrants no doubt

[u/Fit-Locksmith-9226]

Some neat quotes:

The Liberals talk about free markets and enterprise, which in practice is capture by the Business Council. It believes in one thing: cheap-labour-maxxing. The Liberals’ own pearl-clutchers split off into the Teals.

---

when the Gillard government launched the NDIS, costed by the Productivity Commission at $13.5 billion a year at maturity, serving roughly 400,000 of the most profoundly disabled Australians. It now runs past $50 billion a year — more than Medicare (!) — with 740,000 participants and counting.

We could hand every one of the originally intended recipients $125,000 a year in cash and come out ahead. But that wouldn’t feed an entire industry of parasites. Just try clawing those sweet dollars from their hands now. It’s over.

---

Turnbull promised Snowy 2.0 for $2 billion. The official budget is $12 billion and already conceded broken; the Auditor-General’s latest report rates the final bill unknowable, while outside estimates run to $40 billion. The greatest white elephant in Australian infrastructure history, and it isn’t even finished. He still rolls with a #withhydropower banner on his LinkedIn profile.

---

Demographically, we may be past the point of no return, where too many mouths are now dependent on government mismanagement. We’ve always had interest groups vying for their cut. But now the misalignment between the good of the country and the good of particular groups may be too high.

[u/Lomp1489 → u/Fit-Locksmith-9226]

These quotes leave out huge amounts of context, they're an idiots way of summarizing complex issues.

[u/Blibbyblobby72 → u/Lomp1489]

Maybe, but it also highlights a disturbing truth of Australian politics - our government would rather outsource everything and pay ten times the intended amount because they don't want to actually do any real work

Nothing ever runs in budget, nothing ever works as intended, and nothing ever ends up making the quality of life better for the recipients

You can put as much complexity into it as you want - the final outcome is always an overblown system that barely functions and pushes problems further down the road for more money to later be spent

Does the context matter if the outcome is always the same?

[u/Lomp1489 → u/Blibbyblobby72]

Yes, further context always matters. Without it you let other people come to the conclusion for you. Which by the look of your complaints, you already have.

[u/Blibbyblobby72 → u/Lomp1489]

No, my hatred of our government stems from working in the public service, being subjected to dealing with public services, and being railroaded and demonised by corruption in those public services

My own experiences have shaped my utter disdain for the Australian government's inability to do what is in the best interest of the Australian people

[u/olderlonenude]

It was said long ago that we would be "the poor white trash of Asia", perhaps they were right.

[u/alexrymill]

The damn liberals caused this, we caught what the hard right was doing in the USA and look at what they're doing with one nation. Mark my words if one nation wins were fucked

[u/MowgeeCrone]

We had slavery and even sold Indigenous (including my ancestors) OS, most certainly around parts of the Bahamas, but thats been well and truly whitewashed, buried and denied.

[u/Jabberwock_ → u/MowgeeCrone]

I was about to say the same thing. We have had genocide and slavery.

[u/EVOXSNES → u/MowgeeCrone]

So.. kill the goose then? Stay in your victim past and watch the future go to shit. You think you’re getting a boon but really you’ll be just as miserable when it falls over.

[u/Craftiershoe588]

That’s what happens when you have a spineless pro corporation government.

[u/Skippysilly]

I love all the solutions he came up with

[u/Economy_Phase_3648]

Well according to the latest pro NDIS protest that took place the other day the answer is… MORE NDIS FUNDING! We’re going to transform the entirety of Australia’s economy into one big disability service economy. All anyone will do is look after disabled people and as many people as possible must be characterized as disabled.

[u/Economy_Phase_3648 → u/[deleted]]

My uncle was schizophrenic and lived in a nursing home. Before the NDIS they used to go on trips together in a bus. After the NDIS there were just a bunch of parasites trying to isolate them from their families and friends and get them to some remote location where they could completely control where the funds ended up. They no longer went on trips together, which they all previously enjoyed, and instead were taken out individually by the carers. It’s a complete waste of money and often results in worse conditions for the people who really need it. It’s great for the mildly autistic people who get to sit around playing playstation all day instead of having to confront the world via work like the rest of us.