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Australia spent $200bn within the space of a few months on direct welfare handouts alone, retailers selling imported junk are now giving out special dividends t

Australia spent $200bn within the space of a few months on direct welfare handouts alone, retailers selling imported junk are now giving out special dividends to investors like it's the peak of an economic boom. It's yet to be shown they've handled the economic side well and I doubt history will judge the fiscal response positively. That's a lot of wasted opportunity with regards to infrastructure spending. The National Broadband Network in comparison cost $40bn and estimates for an East coast high speed rail network from Brisbane to Melbourne came out at just over $100bn by infrastructure Australia and was deemed much too expensive to proceed by both sides of politics despite having a valid ROI business case drawn up.

dwd 6y ago
More like $101 billion to date (over 6 months). They announced 130bn initially, then revised that down by 60 due to an accounting error. I think there was need for an additional 15bn with Victoria going back into lockdown and some other extensions. Probably well spent as any money you give directly to workers quickly circulates back into the economy. There's no trickle down, but it definitely floats to the top.
blm 6y ago
Wouldnt spending money on infrastructure create need for people to be in the same physical location to do at least the manual work part of building infrastructure? Recent maintenance of electricity infrastructure in this street created a congregation of at least 8 people. Also building infrastructure seems like a win win but after the infrastructure is built there is also a commitment to maintain the infrastructure. Isnt this like signing up for a recurring expense? Too often I think politicians and others think of it like a one off purchase to garner votes. See this: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/4/30/my-city-has-massive-infrastructure-liabilities-so-do-99-of-the-cities-in-america https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/4/30/my-city-has-ma...

dwd 6y ago

More like $101 billion to date (over 6 months). They announced 130bn initially, then revised that down by 60 due to an accounting error. I think there was need for an additional 15bn with Victoria going back into lockdown and some other extensions. Probably well spent as any money you give directly to workers quickly circulates back into the economy. There's no trickle down, but it definitely floats to the top.

blm 6y ago

Wouldnt spending money on infrastructure create need for people to be in the same physical location to do at least the manual work part of building infrastructure? Recent maintenance of electricity infrastructure in this street created a congregation of at least 8 people. Also building infrastructure seems like a win win but after the infrastructure is built there is also a commitment to maintain the infrastructure. Isnt this like signing up for a recurring expense? Too often I think politicians and others think of it like a one off purchase to garner votes. See this: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/4/30/my-city-has-massive-infrastructure-liabilities-so-do-99-of-the-cities-in-america https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/4/30/my-city-has-ma...