I fail to see your logic. How can sending money out of Australia help our economy? You claim that it will make us more competive, but because of our standard of living, if we want to compete with the third world countries who work for a dollar a day then we have to do the same. Do you really want to degenerate our standard of living?
I'm afraid this observation is emotive and inaccurate. Refer to basic economics - comparative advantage. These so called 'third world countries' have a comparative advantage in the simple manufacturing and textiles sector.
Whilst there are real social issues arising from structural change (the shift away from clothing and textile industry, for example) in Australia, there is a real benefit for consumers and merchandisers. Cheaper goods result in a rise in real income and consumers are free to spend money on other goods, thus further stimulating the economy. The accumulation of a trade deficit may adversely affect our external stability, and place the economy in danger of a financial crisis. However, Australia's external stability situation is distinguished from that of South American economies, for example due to the fact that its external instability exists almost solely in the private sector.
International trade and the freeing up of protection has in general, a positive impact on global living standards. Generalities, of course cannot be pursued as unquestionable doctrines. The regional inequality arising from the shutting down of factories, for example is a real concern. Semi-skilled and unskilled workers retrenched as a result of production cost-backs may well pose a drain on taxpayers in terms of the welfare and retraining costs they are entitled to. But structural change per se is not what I see as the major problem posed by Globalisation in the aspect of regional specialisation. The main concern seems to be the narrowing of occupational choice in individual geographic locations and the increasing need to travel overseas to fill the shortage in labour for the relevant industry. This may result in further disintegration of the family unit and social interaction, but it may also be somewhat overcome by improved telecommunications and transport technologies.
Anyway, does no one realise that the economy is built upon falsities. At the end of the day all the high paying jobs and our large human resources, middle management, whatever-it-calls-itself sector does not actually produe anything. If we keep under-cutting our industries then we'll be importing only and not exporting, thus sending our money away with out getting returns.
I hope you didn't expect to get away with having such a 'blood and soil' mentality...
