Waterfront gains brought home to consumers

Reflecting on the productivity-transforming events depicted in the ABC-TV mini series Bastard Boys, today’s editorial in The Australian notes that...

The fact that the protagonists were rendered as caricatures and the issues painted in stark tones of black and white rather than the subtler tones of grey should surprise no one. ... [I]t is understandable that the directors [sic] of Bastard Boys did not dwell on the economics of productivity improvements. Yet it is worth noting that the imported flat-screen televisions on which many viewers might have enjoyed the two-part series were made more affordable in part by the productivity improvements on the wharves.

Gosh, that surely settles it!!

Any qualms anyone may have had about an Australian government secretly colluding with commercial interests in order to sack a few hundred Australians may now be put finally to rest.

That we may now enjoy “the most blatant union propaganda” for a few bucks cheaper on our flat-screen televisions is indeed a triumph for Australian society.

That The Australian’s editorialists themselves “did not dwell on the economics” of those vaunted productivity improvements on the waterfront is neither here nor there.

That flat-screen televisions are now almost cheap as chips is so obviously attributable to our Howard Government fighting the good fight for all of us against those wicked trade unionists, and has nothing to do with multi-million dollar investment in equipment and infrastructure since 1998.

Nor, apparently, has our flat-screen television nirvana anything to do with improved manufacturing processes and infrastructure in China or Taiwan, or that labour in those places is cheap as chips, or even that a resources boom has latterly fueled Australian consumer prosperity.

Thanks to The Australian, it’s all been brought home to us.

And gosh, dontcha just lerv John Howard!!!