Australia and the West have experienced, hand over fist, improvements in GDP and living standards since we moved our manufacturing and resource extraction overseas*.

Even as the working class got sold out**, living standards improved across the board. The rich got richer and so did the middle class - with most Australians joining the middle class, during and, since the post-war era.

We were getting a good deal on our imports, taking more from poorer countries (Global South) than we gave in return, but that has been coming to an end.

The Global North (the First World) has monopolised trade with the Global South, by Capital and demand but also coercion and regime change, which ensured a good deal. But with the rise of the BRIX and China's Belt and Road initiative, the Global South has more opportunity for equal exchange of goods and services.

While the IMF used third world debt to influence policy change, allowing Western Capital to buy up and exploit industry, Chinese banks are forgiving debts and negotiating mutually beneficial agreements (to the benefit of China).

While Western Capital built limited infrastructure to extract a specific resource, China is investing in not just general infrastructure but education and the creation of a local workforce.

The Global South are trading with each other. They have more options, trade is more competitive - we get less of a deal.

Where previously Australia could afford to give Corporations absurd profits and still have money for the people, this will be less and less possible. Australia needs to re-embrace the policies of the post-war era, which ensured a dignified life, and roll back the last 50 years of neoliberal policy built for an age which no longer exists.

* Not just in the neoliberal era, but all the way back to the start of colonial expansion.

** With manufacturing moving overseas and the denationalisation by various Liberal -and some Labor- governments.

*** consent manufacturing became harder to enforce

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49687-y

[2] https://ourworldindata.org/trade-and-globalization

[3] https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2021/03/08/bailouts-from-beijing-how-china-functions-as-an-alternative-to-the-imf/

[4] https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/S2377740023500173

CC SA NC

The Australian Government has funnelled $2.5B of public funding to Israeli arms manufacturers via government contracts. Steph Tran investigates.

I haven't seen much reporting on this.

No one is surprised Labor have the Assembly, but that's all the media seem to be reporting on.

https://www.elections.wa.gov.au/elections/state/sgelection#/sg2025

It's honestly a bit boring, eat your veggies, eat well, exercise, socialise, don't poison yourself

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/2929984

I am accessing the NHL tv streaming site geoblocked from a country who has limited interest in hockey (hence no fighting amongst SN, ESPN, etc.).

Trying to access all games has been a nightmare to do through official companies. How's your experience been?

Hi all, I'm reaching out to the community to help with the design of a hex clock.

I'm honestly very lost on where to start. My current plan is to buy some gears and make a large monstrosity which is unlikely to fit on a wall. Does anyone have a more elegant suggestion?

It's following the general design of a clock with two main differences:

1. There are 256 seconds in the second hands rotation.
2. There are 4 hands, the 4th of which measures ~136 years in a rotation.

There has been a shoot out between police and someone in Clarkson starting at 12 today (Wed 13 sept).

Please post any information if you have it. My partner is in the area and unable to leave. Estimates are that this will continue and the roads may be blocked west of the freeway as you head home.

Stay safe all and avoid the area.

The foreign policy and defence session and all attention is on whether AUKUS debates will be publicly aired or smoothed over in backrooms beforehand.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his allies are reportedly seeking to appease elements of the party hostile to the security pact.

On Monday, partly leaders broadcast the idea of an AUKUS a ‘statement in detail’ on AUKUS, which would ensure the nuclear submarines promised under the deal would be constructed in Australia by a well-paid unionised workforce.

Does Australia really have a choice?

Since when did we stand up to the demands of the UK or the USA? Will we be seeing another Gough Whitlam, a Kevin Rudd - quickly moved as side at the first sign of descent - or the stock standard: a revolving door of Bob Hawk's and slimy, weak polli's?

Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon are some of the largest and most powerful firms in the global economy. Their size, value and the wealth of their founders raise serious concerns for distributive justice. To address these concerns, as well as the threats these firms pose to political liberties, perhaps we need to change how data is ‘owned’.

Southeast Asia begins to meet their growing demand for beef. Heralding in more feedlots, cattlefeed farming, land degradation, phosphate overgrowths and greenhouse gas emotions.

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