We are now seeing a massive shift in Global economic power with the USA following Great Britain’s post-war decline of manufacturing. Today (22/08) on ABCc Radio following the announcement by Wollongong’s Blue Scope steel to put off nearly 1000 of its employees, the comments, were startlingly lacking in strategies. The AIG’s CEO Heather Ridout said nothing in terms of what must be done finally referring to the Reserve Bank and Interest rates. Paul Eastlake, economist, said protectionism wouldn’t work; comments by others included some sort of assistance for communities affected by the crisis where workers and their families at Wollongong now face the serious imposition of unemployemt.
The matter of manufacturing decline has been with us for some time, and very little is said. The comments by leaders in the US as well as Australia are noted for their silence. When President Obama returns from his holidays we may hear him address America’s problems, now with 14 million unemployed and 50,000 losing their jobs every month from the manufacturing sector.
The matter of economic decline is the biggest issue facing the West since the World War. What we are seeing is jobs in the West shifting off-shore to China’s low wage environment and no one appears to want to acknowledge what is happening, least of all pose answers. Platitudes by leading figures is not a plausible response. It is almost econo-comedy to point out Australia is going gang busters to sell iron ore and other minerals—the very thing that is turning around and biting us on the rear. China, as a neo-capitalist economy is government controlled and knows full well it is assuming 200 years of Western technology including inventions without batting an eyelid. The low wage structure is to their great advantage as the ‘factory of the world’.
Before our eyes we are seeing the decline of the West, and the great tiger of technology, the USA, now being seriously mauled with the massive shift.
Warren James
