Quote:
Originally Posted by 5wheelguy
Ok, fine. Now tell me why nobody is building the infrastructure.
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A few things....
1. lack of vision. we seem to have lost the ability to look at the big picture, we're too myopic and are overly concerned with tackling the little problems and not the big ones. the Snowy Hydro still stands as (IMO) our greatest engineering feat. would we dare tackle a project of that scale ever again? the biggest single project that comes to mind is the NBN, and that has been a colossal fail, and is comparatively far less complex.
2. too much concern over the economics. we're so anti-debt we wont take anything on, so it leads to having to engage private consortiums whose primary goal is a return rather than a public benefit. major road projects always end up addressing today's traffic, not tomorrow's. major new residential projects aren't built in concert with the necessary arterial road infrastructure, leading to congestion that puts a huge burden not only on the existing road systems, but on the people who are forced to commute 1hr+ on a journey that shouldn't take longer than 30min.
3. we don't have the right conditions anymore for manufacturing. it isn't just labour costs, but all the red tape associated with the use of labour. the government regulate almost every facet of industry, and their view is a business's first priority is compliance. they never think about how new regulations impact on our competitiveness, they believe its a direct indicator of quality, while refusing to accept there's only so much a customer is willing to pay for that supposed quality. little wonder as soon as the economy of scale is there, the first goal of most manufacturers is to find a way to go offshore.