"If we die, you die."
Reading the article revealed that there was not much in there about how much wealth is brought to Australia (or even how Australia really benefits long term from this), only a message how we've tied ourselves to something and how much we've over extended ourselves to get this to China.
I would like to see just how much of the money from the mining boom stays in Australia VS how much we blow in gearing up for handling the volumes. I would worry that as we all know this won't last forever what happens when it stops?
I guess we'll be left holding the debts on the infrastructure we paid for to get some of that stuff out. Of course some of that is paid for by the mines, but not all of it.
Naturally people will cry out that we need foreign investment to make the country big and strong. But do we and how much? A thought provolking article on this can be read over at Macrobusiness here.
From where I sit I only see us ruining our long term for some gain in the short term which isn't even really much gain for us. Something worth considering is the WA Gas Shortage and that during the Great Famine of Ireland Ireland remained a net food exporter.
Meaning they had enough to feed themselves but were unable to afford it themselves.
History goes in cycles.
