Have you noticed that after the helping hand extended by governments during the global pandemic that the market is clawing that financial aid back with extra helpings of interest? Inflation is capitalism’s response to the injection of more money into the economy by governments. Bankers and business don’t like governments giving handouts. The cost of living has spiked with prices for essentials like rent, energy, and food going through the roof. The system set up by banks, business, and government ensures that you and I pay whatever the circumstance. The current inflationary period has been identified as the result of a profit-price-spiral. Corporations have jacked up their prices well beyond the higher costs of doing business, as seen by the record profits being declared.
Australian Economy Punishing The Poor
Those of us at the bottom of the pyramid get to prop up the system with the greatest part of our overall wealth. During times of crisis, we have to bear the greatest economic damage to our lives. Inflation is brought down by central banks by raising interest rates and sending the economy into recession. In real terms this means that we have our wages held down and may lose our jobs completely. Prices are high, wages are low, and business becomes bad. The fact that large amounts of JobKeeper went to companies making large profits during the pandemic can only make the medicine all the more unpalatable. The Coalition must enjoy the bittersweet irony of a Labor government unable to help its citizens during tough times due to the inflationary effect of handouts.
Australia Spending Billions on Weapons Called Submarines
Meanwhile, Australia is going to spend $368 billion on a few newish submarines. The Albanese government will, however, remain economically hawkish about not giving any needy citizens a handout. The dole will probably not go up or go up by a negligible amount. It is already well below the poverty line. I observed a report that shop lifting is costing billions. Well, what do you think is going to happen when poor Australians cannot pay the rent and cannot feed their families. Energy prices are going up a further 30% to 40% in the coming financial year. China has made this nation economically wealthy, especially if you own a coal or iron ore mine or two. What a delicious irony it is that we feel we have to buy these incredibly expensive submarines because we fear the rise of China – but we have furnished them with their steel to build their own armaments. Did anyone ask you or me whether we should have been selling China iron ore and coal in the first place? No, of course not. This is trade and nobody questions trade. Half a trillion dollars is a lot of money for a few submarines and it will blow out to be much more, as it always does with these things. Nine Fairfax is beating the drums of war loudly in concert with Australia’s military industrial complex. The pigs with the biggest snouts in the trough are making their presence heard on the national stage. Defence is the most wasteful and inefficient section of the Australian economy. Their toys are exceedingly expensive and those who make them are wildly extravagant in their economic demands.
Submarines are some of the most complex and costly toys in the military kitbag. A boat that sneaks up on a ship by travelling underwater is a pretty low concept. I blame Leonardo da Vinci for the genesis of that idea. Leonardo spent much of his life in the pay of autocratic leaders coming up with technologies for new weapons. He is celebrated, today, as an artist but would be considered something more evil if this was more widely known. This is the world we live in, a place where sneaking up on others is par for the course. U-boats in WW2 cost untold lives and were Hitler’s favourite war toys. Australia will spend at least $368 billion on such things to defend and deter possible adversaries.
Bankers and business don’t like governments giving handouts, unless it is to things like defence and then the sky is the limit. Defending Australia is obviously a worthy idea, but it is in the application of such intentions that the pigs excitedly get their snouts in the trough. The waste and inefficiencies in defence projects are legendary. Submarines and Australia are like Alan Bond and Channel Nine – costly bad deals of massive proportions. We have form in this space and it aint good. Modern submarines are really mobile missile launching platforms, which can allow us to strike targets a long way away from our shores. These are offensive weapons in the main. Of course, we wont actually have them for another decade. Let’s hope the big bad China does the sporting thing and waits for us to be offensively ready. In the meantime, we will continue to sell them container ship loads of iron ore and coal.
©House Therapy