I'm expecting the devaluation to be greater than most seem to be thinking at present. Looking at the overall circumstances, a bit over 80 US cents still sounds more like a top than a bottom despite the recent falls.
There's a big difference between a one-off problem versus an ongoing structural one.
Eat too much on Christmas Day = not really a problem. Doing it every day is a very different situation however which in due course leads to obesity and associated problems.
Same principle with finance. I see no problem with running the occasional deficit due to one-off problems. Eg 40 years ago Darwin was flattened by a cyclone and there was also the partial collapse of the Tasman Bridge in Hobart. Two significant disasters within days of each other. Commonsense says borrow money if needed to deal with the situation. Same with more recent things like the Queensland floods a few years ago etc. It's OK to borrow if you've got a fundamentally sound position and can repay the debt from ongoing income. It's very, very different however if you're borrowing in order to fund routine expenditure as now seems to be the case.
The trouble with politicians of all persuasions is that they seem to expect the good times to last forever. We have a boom in whatever industry and that generates both taxation revenue and broader benefits such as reduced unemployment etc. Governments always fail to save for a rainy day and we're then faced with a financial crisis once the boom inevitably ends.
It's economics 101 really. I won't claim to know what the next boom will be or when it will occur. But I do know that it will in due course end. They always do. Only politicians seem unable to grasp this basic reality.
I'm sure we could come up with a pretty long list of potentially worthwhile projects and no doubt we'd disagree with some of them. But anything of ongoing use, which benefits the nation's productivity and has a 50+ year lifespan looks a lot better an idea to me than spending it on new TV's and so on.
There's good spending and there's bad.
The Snowy scheme was commenced before most currently living Australians were born. For that matter, it was commenced before their parents were born in many cases and construction was completed a generation ago (1975).
It still has value today. It still generates peak power into NSW and Vic. It still provides irrigation water for agriculture. It still does exactly what it was supposed to do, and there's no reason why it shouldn't still be working long after you and I fall off our perch.
In contrast, can anyone point me to a real ongoing benefit of the $900 "Rudd money" handouts? Anything at all of ongoing value? I'd take a guess that well over 90% of what it bought has either been consumed, thrown out or forgotten about by now.
I'm not proposing that we necessarily build another Snowy-like scheme involving dams and tunnels (though that is possible in an engineering sense certainly) but if we're going to spend taxpayers' funds to generate economic activity then I'd very much rather it went into something of effectively permanent value instead of disappearing amidst general consumer spending on mostly imported goods.
I'm sure we could come up with a pretty long list of potentially worthwhile projects and no doubt we'd disagree with some of them. But anything of ongoing use, which benefits the nation's productivity and has a 50+ year lifespan looks a lot better an idea to me than spending it on new TV's and so on.
The sad part for me is that I (and 55% of the voting minions) have to involuntarily suffer the poor choices others made and the incomprehensible obsequious devotion of some to the lemon they bought.
Um, I can think of just one.
Well, I look forward to your enlightening me as to the other rusted on Coalition supporters, noco fairly clearly being the obvious one.
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