chameleon, you make some very interesting points.
Everything is global today. For Australia to sustain itself financially, something must be emanating from it. Even if our aim is maintenance of the economy, that's going to require growth; stagnation will actually result in an inability to maintain the present standard of living. (In my opinion.)
We have industries, jobs, etc., in Australia which are designed to circulate the wealth within Australia. Taking your example of coffee shops, people in that industry are not bringing in additional wealth to Australia, although they are certainly earning their wages! (I say this not just because I am a coffee lover, but because I take my metaphorical hat off to anyone whose job involves a lot of standing, and interacting with the public is a talent in itself. There are coffee shops that I'll never revisit because the attitude of the staff member taking the order or bringing the coffee was off-putting; conversely, most coffee shops have staff who are friendly and professional and who recognise their repeat customers.)
But... if all we have in Australia are people whose work involves selling a service or product to other Australians, without the service being something unique or globally desirable (i.e., bringing in money from international clients) or the products being Australian (source material Australian; manufacturing Australian, so that as much as possible - hopefully all! - of the money made from selling the product (both locally and internationally) goes to increase the incomings for Australia ) ... then there would be stagnation.
I truly rue the loss of Australian manufacture. Of course companies who began to outsource manufacture to other countries were able to increase their profits and have an advantage over companies who were doing it locally. Of course these companies were not just outsourcing the process (manufacturing) but also the components (product), and what was shipped back to the companies was the final product which the company sold... All well and good for the companies concerned at the time; long-term, however, it wouldn't have needed a Nebuchadnezzar to read the writing on the wall.
Does anyone quarrel with the statement that there have been instances of outsourced production leading to poorer quality products? (I have some examples to fling your way if you do.)
Loss of local manufacturing means loss of skills in the domestic market, loss of jobs, and lack of investment in technological advances that could increase production and global positioning with such production. Rare earth minerals is one case in point. The lackadaisical ambling along in solar energy is another. (We could be world leaders in this; why aren't we?) And - one of my largest bugbears - how we deal with waste. Waste is a global problem, as is the ridiculous reliance upon biochemicals in producing plastics, synthetic fabrics, etc. Why hasn't Australia long since developed technologies for economical renewables? We could have turned a problem into a solution, but at the moment we are floundering. If we could forge ahead with this, putting serious money into developing and testing and then producing, we could be the global go-to people for much of this.
I don't know how well this translates to Australian eBay sellers, who - after all - would certainly not be in a position to transition these sorts of developments and changes. I do think that perhaps there is something to take from it. Sellers on eBay who are importing products from China, Malaysia, etc., and then re-selling them on eBay, are not well-placed (generally speaking) to compete with the very same sellers who are their suppliers. The suppliers can undercut not only on the product price, but also the postage price (because of China's subsidy for postage). However, sellers who provide uniquely Australian items, or craft items with their own unique set of skills, or sell authorised Australian items where we know that the products are under warranty and are required to be suitable for use in Australia, would appear to be bringing in gross income for Australia.
Oh! Getting back to coffee... I would love to see coffee crops in Australia increase their quality and presence. Can S795 be planted in Australia? What a taste, especially at altitude!
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