Adelaide: Decline and Fall

[rev]

Whilst I don't deny their are both existing problems, and new ones on the horizon, I find this awfully pessimistic and at times, making issues seem worse than they really are. (For instance, putting the closure of a small book store who over extended themselves in with somewhere like Mitsubishi as examples of companies that have "left" is just silly. And The Advertiser downsizing their print and photographic departments has got nothing to do with problems in Adelaide, that's something that's happening at papers world wide.)

You say that over the last 30 years or so, almost the complete entrepreneurial and professional leadership class has left. I feel that in the last 5 years or so, this has started to slow. It's still a problem, but not to the extent that it was in the 2000's, and hopefully that slowing continues.

It's just a typical boring cliche bitch session about Adelaide.
He says the entrepreneurs have all left. Then later acknowledged the small bar scene that's popped up.
Ignores the food van craze. How many small burger joints have popped up across Adelaide?
There's many small businesses that have been started.
Read today's paper..A husband and wife have started their own company producing affordable and easy to use ice baths for sports teams. They were trialled last week in the FFA Cup. Sure they aren't going to become instant billionaires and employ 10,000 people. But they are entrepreneurs giving it a go.
Same with the Big Screen Video company that's expanded into the eastern states even has an office in Sydney now.
There's plenty of examples if people look.

The op has no clue though because his heads up his ass.

[Vee]

Malcolm King, writing for inDaily, appears to delight in spreading his message of gloom and doom across S-A and InDaily.
No shining lights, positivity, just negativity.

This tweet today via @InDaily (below), below adds to the extreme negativity and scaremongering.

Dire warning about the future of SA's economy: could we face unemployment rates of 18pc?
http://t.co/IaIgyhVfM1

via @InDaily

Next?
A billboard on Anzac Highway or Airport roadway?

[Aidan]

The key problem is debt, but not in the way people think. In 1988 when I first arrived in SA, things were booming. But then the Keating recession, the State Bank collapse and the Liberal Party scaremongering gave people an irrational fear of state government debt. Since then we've resorted to false economies to avoid it, and we are very reluctant to invest in our future.

Federal issues make the problem worse — the interest rate SA pays is effectively set by the RBA, which sets it mainly to control inflation in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. If they were set to control inflation in Adelaide instead they'd be lower. Federal payments should compensate for this, but resentment ensures they don't.

SA's future is very bright thanks to solar energy. But a lack of public investment is preventing us from properly taking advantage of it.

[phenom]

The key problem is debt, but not in the way people think.

I agree with this. People generally have been either lulled or scared into believing that government (public) debt is 'bad' regardless of what it's incurred on. Of course this is reflected in the political realities of what is 'allowed' lest a party or politician be labelled as 'fiscally irresponsible' and of course, 'think about the children' (the irony being that if we were thinking of them, we would be building that infrastructure, with debt, right now). Sadly, this just echoes the broader picture where 'the average punter' believes a government balance sheet is just a big version of a household one and should operate in the same way. I'm yet to meet or find a household however that more or less for practical purposes will exist into perpetuity or that has the power to tax.

Playford embarked on a massive program to industrialise this state - successfully - using the tools he had available and in a way that matched the reality of the time (ie manufacturing under tariffs). As mentioned by some commenters here and on the original article elsewhere, there are new industries emerging that we need to look at. Can we do what we did before? No. Can the State Government 'make' them happen? No. But we can invest in ways that give us a healthy, educated population and provide the soft and hard infrastructure that just might give us that edge.

Obviously the priorities for this infrastructure and investment are contestable based on people's political views or whatever, but if SA is to move forward, we simply cannot just do 'piecemeal' things on the smell of an oily rag. We need things that give us an edge - whatever that is - over other States. So if someone wants to set up an office or a base in Australia, they actually consider Adelaide/SA and are able to say, yes, we lose out on size etc but by going there we get A, B and C.

I also wanted to say I wasn't keen on the 'edited' version of the original article that appeared in InDaily, where it 'listed off' closures and sackings. Again, cherry picking. I could do the same thing for any State in Australia with a fifteen minute google search. And how is it SA's fault that monetary policy (interest rates) are set for the country as a whole, not us? If the Federal Government is failing to compensate us for this (and indeed, punishing us based on the directions of fiscal equalisation reviews) how on earth is that the fault of SA - its people, its culture or even... gulp... its politicans?

[Aidan]

... And how is it SA's fault that monetary policy (interest rates) are set for the country as a whole, not us? If the Federal Government is failing to compensate us for this (and indeed, punishing us based on the directions of fiscal equalisation reviews) how on earth is that the fault of SA - its people, its culture or even... gulp... its politicans?

To try to find a way to blame SA for it isn't helpful — instead we should be asking if we can do anything about it. I don't hear anyone advocating concessional loans for SA even though it would be in the national interest for us to get them. Instead we try to grab a bigger share of the revenue of other states. Don't you see a problem with that?

[mking]

Article now at

http://indaily.com.au/opinion/2014/08/1 ... line-fall/

[[Shuz]]

I was a bit disappointed that InDaily decided to publish that article and give it unwarranted airtime and further attention. We don't need any more of this sensationalist negativity in our media. The Advertiser already does that job, unfortunately.

[Will]

Article now at

http://indaily.com.au/opinion/2014/08/1 ... line-fall/

Well, I hope you are proud.

The people here are inherently negative. Hence your article will generally receive a positive response as people will accept anything that is negative about Adelaide as truth, as it simply reaffirms their pre-existing views.

Once again, what is your objective?

[monotonehell]

Assuming that the not reading the comments rule doesn't apply to inDaily; the winner of best comment goes to Missy S:

I feel completely offended that people would even relate Adelaide to Detroit. Our techno scene is nothing like theirs.

[Aidan]

Article now at

http://indaily.com.au/opinion/2014/08/1 ... line-fall/

Well, I hope you are proud.

The people here are inherently negative. Hence your article will generally receive a positive response as people will accept anything that is negative about Adelaide as truth, as it simply reaffirms their pre-existing views.

The people here are inherently argumentative, so an article is more likely to receive a negative response whether it's positive or negative. Even if there's an overall negative bias, it won't be based on the same things.

[Brucetiki]

I was a bit disappointed that InDaily decided to publish that article and give it unwarranted airtime and further attention. We don't need any more of this sensationalist negativity in our media. The Advertiser already does that job, unfortunately.

Sadly InDaily are heading down the sensationalist garbage track. There's this little gem about a guy who needs to leave his place on South Rd (as part of the Torrens-Torrens project), who's been given 4 months free rent, who has ignored all communication with the DPTI, yet InDaily are carrying on as if the DPTI are these big evil government people throwing people out on the street.

http://indaily.com.au/news/2014/08/21/g ... -eviction/

It's crap like the OP and this article that will ultimately destroy InDaily as a genuine alternative to The Antagoniser.

[Aidan]

InDaily will never be a genuine alternative while their website's so flaky! No matter what content they have, their way of making their articles float above a darkened background is slow to load and jumps around as it does so, making it hard to start reading. It also tends to lead to browser crashes.

[Wayno]

Malcolm could (and should) claim the purpose of his article is to provoke thought & discussion. Mission achieved if taken from a pure sense - we are talking somewhat about the content, but unfortunately mostly about his method.

One things for sure - Malcolm cannot claim his message will benefit or stay with the populous. He knows how 'recency' is king and next weeks news, no matter how trivial in comparison, will overshadow last weeks. A good journalist should endeavour to achieve 'stickiness' with his/her writing and MUST keep top of mind the function that news plays in the lives of people.

I score this article 4/10 on the grounds it is borderline 'yellow journalism'.

[Maximus]

Off topic, really, but out of interest -- Aidan, what's your setup for viewing InDaily? I generally read it at work using IE9, and by and large it's very smooth for me. Certainly never had a browser crash.

[Aidan]

The one I use most is Safari for iPad, but I've tried it on Browser+ for iPad and the same thing happens. It's more stable on a Mac, but still slow loading and not at all smooth.