You import a great deal more from us than we import from you. Apparently the Uk has over £43 billion of investments in Australia. That doesn’t appear to be very island-like.
I think Bruce was just teasing.
1 Like
I wasn’t too sure 
In theory Oz could be self sufficient. You have avocados in your back gardens, you have great wine and seem to have some pretty decent geology. You even grow your own coffee beans. I’m surprised Australia imports as much as it does.
Look at a map
See? it is a big island and it’s all ours.
1 Like
So Australia has no trade partners and /or allies, this is not true. Australia’s allies include the United States, New Zealand, and other countries in the Indo-Pacific region.Australia’s major trading partners include the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Trade as a whole is equivalent to 45 per cent of Australian GDP, and is directly responsible for one in five Australian jobs. Businesses with foreign investment generate around 40 percent of Australian exports, and foreign investment supports one in ten jobs in Australia. No nation is an island unto it’s self.
“The first method of estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him”
------Niccolo Machiavelli
Unless you are Australia, see map.
When you are not an island Mr Trump has to built a wall
2 Likes
So is that your impression of the average Aussie Annie?
An avocado eating, coffee drinking wino who lives by a billabong?
I know Annie, I started a courier empire (well it was just me really) and delivered worldwide…London, New York, Paris, Rome, and Doncaster…(Doncaster mainly)
And the only qualifications I had were my City and Guilds in mechanical engineering.
Did my own servicing on the van to save money…
It would be if did like like Trump and put eyewatering tariffs on all the imports that we could make here. We could set up a national car plant and produce our own cars and vans and ban all foreign imports. If you want to drive, you have to buy a British made vehicle. Just think of all the jobs that would create, steel making once again, small engineering establishments to make components and the tax raised from all those wages being paid.
Wasn’t it the Empire State Building that eased America out of the recession? They didn’t really need the building just the jobs and revenue it created…
1 Like
This probably needs a thread all of its own: “average Aussie”
I was surprised when I first went to Melbourne - it seems every other store was a coffee shop. Correction - independent coffee shop. I also loved the bottle shop next door to the bar - selling fantastic local wines (which have gone up in price enormously in recent years). And tons of healthy food options. I didn’t see a billabong but did have dinner down by the
Yarra river. I’m sure Crocodile Dundee look-alikes are plentiful up in Queensland but not in Victoria.
1 Like
Thank you for taking the time to answer, Annie. I read up on the subject briefly, and it seems that there is an effort underway to restructure some of the investments to raise returns. Retirement amounts are fixed here, and based on the year, 62-70 that one chooses to retire, while it reads like you are more at the mercy of the fund managers than the markets. Is that system wise for those who are completely dependent on returns?
Private pensions are dependent on markets, but with diversification and asset protection is up to the individual, there are opportunities in every economic situation. Those who invest conservatively are not greatly impacted by market fluctuations.
1 Like
I guess what threw me off thinking you were teasing is that Britain is also an Island
1 Like
This is the way .
2 Likes
The most important factor is global economic stability (or as near as we can get to it).
I’m surprised that traditional republicans would be for this tariff levy policy. It goes against the spirit of free competition which I thought was a republican “must have”.
Strong domestic economic policy insulates against major market fluctuations. Timing matters, though and I know this is causing anxiety among the UK money managers.
Normally, absolutely tariffs are avoided, but paramount to that is fiscal responsibility. It’s the debt, Annie. It is true that tariffs are not a quick fix, and proposed tariffs (small ones; the larger ones are just bargaining tools that are unlikely or will be short-lived) are meant to return and keep tech, manufacturing, and innovation, in-country for the obvious long-term domestic growth in tax generating revenues.
On a side note, in the last 72 hours that the US announced major tariffs with Canada and Mexico, the leaders of which have come to the table and several immmigration-control policies have been promised by both countries. Mexico’s Sheinbaum is crying retaliation (won’t work), but she knows this has been coming for a long, long time. The tariffs are the catalyst.
Geographically speaking, you are correct, but your country / economics / security are all reliant on other nations (as are all nations), so to that point, you can argue what you will, but it is not true.
Tariffs are not a “fix” at all, it’s only an attempt to isolate our nation. Tariffs will kill competition , thus raising prices, and furthermore will hurt American companies doing business abroad, as countries will retaliate with tariffs on incoming American goods ,as many of our trade partners rely on agriculture imports from the US, like China, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the European Union, the backlash will only severely hurt American companies, consumers, and the US economy. The weak brainchild of the GOP. One thing we have learned about Trump and his leadership abilities (or lack of) from his previous administration, when things become complicated he goes golfing.Biden was not a great leader, but he spent most of his term fixing up the economic and Afghanistan mess that Trump left behind, you will deny, but reserach, you will find it’s fact.
That’s what “island” means.
John Donne, bless his little cotton socks, died 100 years before Australia was “discovered” (much to the surprise of its inhabitants) so he didn’t have a clue (though perhaps he got the continent bit right).
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
1 Like
You are weakly trying to argue a point without having an argument to make, that is how Donald Trump was reelected, people who follow without thinking.
Well, thank you for your few kind words. I appreciate it.
Thank goodness I didn’t vote for Donald Trump
1 Like