We rank amongst the world’s richest nations when it comes to personal wealth but, in terms of our economy and particularly its complexity, we sit amongst the world’s poorest.
It’s a situation that is progressively getting worse.
At just 5.1 per cent of GDP, we have the lowest level of manufacturing of all 37 nations in the OECD.
Tau@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
I agree with this sentiment, I don’t think it is a good idea long term to lose manufacturing capability and knowledge. I would however prefer that a stake in the company is transferred to the government when they have to spend large sums bailing out a facility due to it being in the national interest to do so.
No1@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
I was doing some random ‘writer prompt’ thinking about this today, while thinking about the current/future car industry.
If most of our cars have self drive technology, and they can identify people/pedestrians, then in a state of war, couldn’t the programming be changed to target them instead of miss them?
And for electric cars, couldn’t an enemy state alter the battery management system to cause a runaway thermal battery fire? Imagine every electric car co-ordinated to all catch on fire at the one time. That could make an interesting story.
Just to be clear, I don’t think this would happen, or even know of it’s actually possible.
It just made me think, well, I couldn’t prevent this by buying an Australian car. Which made me sad and miss the old Aussie built cars.
CoolThingAboutMe@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
Also “smart” devices all through everyone’s homes. And phones, routers, other telecommunication devices. Solar inverters.
You could write a crazy story if you started thinking about how many things could be a back door for nation states.