And that makes 3 - Toyota bails out

[Ducatiboy stu]

Um....you cant touch super till retirement. Having been thru 2 redundancies....there is no pot of gold.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

As far as Aldi go....they have nailed it. Most of there stuff is Australian made, more than what most give credit for. They have all the basics with good quality. The shops are simple and once you get used to their way its actuslly pretty good. In fact their highest grossing shops are in the more affluent suburbs. In fact Woolworths even stated that they cannot match Aldi on pricing and distribution costs.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Didn't say it was a pot of gold, but they do get looked after, which is more than what happens for 95% of the worlds population.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Well....you dont really get looked after. Its more a "we are showing that we are doing something" without really doing anything.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Let's not forget the media portraying poor blue collar guys carrying their sandwich bags out the gates of the Toyota plant unshaven with a grim look on their face.

There's been 2,000+ redundancies if not more purely in the design consulting engineering space over the past 12 months in Australia, let alone from Utilities and Asset Owners. None of my friends got their faces on TV, probably cos it's not as dramatic as a guy in a suit walking out of a high rise office building?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

And a big trend is to have a casual workforce....so there is no redundancy or any payouts.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

I'd been shafted that many times in previous jobs, I sometimes wondered whether I should take some vaseline with me to work.

But instead of being the victim, I decided to be the master of my own destiny.

I pay into my own super - when I can afford to - I get no holiday pay, no long service leave, no sick leave, no RDO's, no 38 hour week, no redundancy payout, etc.

I only get work when I get off my arse and generate it, If my business was to go broke, that's it, I'm broke.

Tony Abbott isn't going to come and save me and nor should he.

 

[pk.sax]

Just gone through a redundancy too, here is my take on it. If you've worked hard and are prepared to work hard going on, not just hard but smart too, there won't be an employment problem.

I can't recount the nights spent into the evenings trying to fix things and do 3 people's work single handedly. Most of our work force at the place was absurdly under skilled and pretty much 9/10 people had the knock off at 4.30 attitude. They would close their eyes to the mountains of work needing doing to keep the ship floating and go home.

A lot of Aussie workers HAVE this entitled attitude where they believe they will get their "dues" no matter what. I can see there was a generation going back that worked hard and put by to put their feet up. Unfortunately that attitude seems to have percolated down to the following generations. Generations of checkout chicks. They don't want to know where he paycheck is coming from as long as it comes in. A big part of that is also the death of small and medium business because that promotes workers connecting with their work.

One of the driving forces behind people working harder and working to up skill themselves is aspiring for a better life. If a factory worker turning a spanner, not required to think too much, makes barely less than his supervisor who has to manage the people and support them all and then again even not that less than the engineer that works out the business case and puts a plan together to create the job in the first place then what sort of example are you promoting?

I know first hand that mechanics that regularly fucked up on doing the right things, couldn't read manuals properly, couldn't adapt to much that was new that quickly, had to be spent oodles of cash on by the company for their certs made more money that the support people that spent longer at work, held their hands, had invested longer years in training and education from their own pocket. In fact the difference was obscene.

What happens is that business compensate for the lack of quality coming in through the 'educated' sources by employing quantity at cheaper rates. No worker will give up the tools to further themselves when the other job pays less. Forcing a further deterioration of quality in the professional fields. I think there were perhaps 3 professionals in the class of 200 I studied with. That is pathetic. This is what comes from a largely flat economic culture. It's got its bad. It's driving the country into a dark abyss. All at the same time. Leadership is frowned on.

 

[Gelding]

So we should drop the wages of workers to keep manufacturing but still pay doctors the same..........

That should for the market to decide yummy boy.

You are decades behind if you think Australia can thrive in the long term on protectionism. Not while the country depends on export revenue.

I'm staggered that you want to protect your lifestyle at the expense of poverty elsewhere in the world. Bangladesh seems oft quoted. You can't tell a starving beggar on the street that he should go on a diet while you stay fat.

 

[hellbent]

Quite often I read stories of China's expansion into Australia of late. They are purchasing our big cattle stations and our prime farming spreads with not one ounce of resistance from any Australian Government.
Go to the House auctions in any capital city and you will see the Chinese/Asians pump up the price of houses to extraordinarily high levels, forcing the Aussie guy looking to buy his first home out of the market.....Once again no resistance from Government.
They send send their kids over here to Aussie for a better education and by paying big money they force the Aussie kids out of places in the Schools and the Univerities.... Government encourages this.
What do we get in return??...... Bloody $2 shops everywhere with the crappiest crap you could possibly find anywhere so people who's eyes only see price tags buy then wonder why the don't work!....... Fluctuations?? My friggin' oath!!!

Edit: a word change.

 

[Goose]

Go to the House auctions in any capital city and you will see the Chinese/Asians pump up the price of houses to extraordinarily high levels, forcing the Aussie guy looking to buy his first home out of the market.....Once again no resistance from Government.

If they are citizens, is that an issue ? As far as I know laws exists such that foreigners can't buy existing properties, only new ones off a plan. This means also that when they come to sell , it must be to an Aussie citizen.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

As a %, the chinesse dont own that much of our farming land. And sure they may own a few mines, but most mines are owned by foreign companies anyway. And if they are buying farms and sending the produce home then it can work in our favour. They employ locals, use local services and by sending the produce overseas it allows local farmers a better chance of selling their produce in the domestic market.

 

[pat_00]

If they are citizens, is that an issue ? As far as I know laws exists such that foreigners can't buy existing properties, only new ones off a plan. This means also that when they come to sell , it must be to an Aussie citizen.

Are you sure?, my girlfriends' aunt just sold their 1960s era house to Chinese investors. They didn't even advertise locally, just went straight to OS Chinese real estate agents. They were convinced they would get more for it.

FWIW I'm not against foreign investment or land ownership. But i think when it comes to housing it should at least be regulated so local citizens don't get priced out of the market. But I suppose the government gets a fatter stamp duty payout with inflated prices...

 

[Goose]

Are you sure?, my girlfriends' aunt just sold their 1960s era house to Chinese investors. They didn't even advertise locally, just went straight to OS Chinese real estate agents. They were convinced they would get more for it.

FWIW I'm not against foreign investment or land ownership. But i think when it comes to housing it should at least be regulated so local citizens don't get priced out of the market. But I suppose the government gets a fatter stamp duty payout with inflated prices...

Its not an open market:

http://www.australia-migration.com/page/foreign_investors_buying_property_as_a_foreigner_or_temporary_resident_in_australia/178

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Most of these "$2 shop owners" work a shit load harder and have better prospects in life than your average dole bludger in the comission flats who just wants to be spoon fed cash, just saying.

 

[Goose]

Most of these "$2 shop owners" work a shit load harder and have better prospects in life than your average dole bludger in the comission flats who just wants to be spoon fed cash, just saying.

and nobody says you have to buy the stuff they sell in there either

 

[Bastow]

The real problem the world over is the unrelenting pursuit of growth, for growths sake. The capitalist system is broken, or more to the point was bound to fail from the get go. A never ending cycle of booms and busts, constantly comsuming more in a finite world. For capitalism to succeed we need to consume more and more, whilst becoming more efficient at producing "stuff".

The problem is this. As we make efficiency gains, inevitably someones job is made redundant. This in turn leads to us needing a new product to produce so old mate can make that instead. It is an exponential cycle, and simply cannot be sustained long term.

Sorry if this is a little OT.

Cheers Bastow

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I like how our PM pointed the finger at the unions for SPC & Toyota and both companies released statements saying that what he said was incorrect.

 

[pk.sax]

The real problem the world over is the unrelenting pursuit of growth, for growths sake. The capitalist system is broken, or more to the point was bound to fail from the get go. A never ending cycle of booms and busts, constantly comsuming more in a finite world. For capitalism to succeed we need to consume more and more, whilst becoming more efficient at producing "stuff". The problem is this. As we make efficiency gains, inevitably someones job is made redundant. This in turn leads to us needing a new product to produce so old mate can make that instead. It is an exponential cycle, and simply cannot be sustained long term. Sorry if this is a little OT. Cheers Bastow

The old capitalist system needs wars to drive the booms and busts. This peaceful way of doing things is overpopulating the earth. The UN and such will be the death of the race as we know it.

...Invitation to refute the facts as I see them.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Yep Capitalists desire growth. They see it as the only way. Its pure greed. If your company does not keep growing its seen as a failure. When growth hits the wall they look at other areas to find growth....look at facebook and other social media type setups...when the growth stops and declines there is a "need" to find a new area of growth. There is only so much money going around and all that is happening is it is being shifted around so " someone" can make money. Same goes for cars. We are constantly being told we need new cars for the sake of a new car. Do you really need a new car, honestly, do you "need" a new car.