18th century economics book still relevant

I WISH to thank the kind lady from QML Pathology in Roderick St for providing me with a chair, umbrella and food while waiting ages fort the RACQ to come.

WAGES: The economic outlook looks uncertain. Picture: JOEL CARRETT

I WISH to thank the kind lady from QML Pathology in Roderick St for providing me with a chair, umbrella and food while waiting ages fort the RACQ to come.

Also, thanks to the two gentlemen who tried to unlock my car with an unresponsive key.

A big thank you. Your are wonderful people. God bless you each.

M HUNTER

Riverview

18th century economics book still relevant

LOOKING at recent news reports, the theme of the upcoming Australian federal election will be for higher wages for employees versus higher profits for employers.

But there is nothing really new here. This has been the old economic argument written up and widely published in the years just after the (re)discovery of the east coast of the continent and its first European settlement.

According to the reputed father of economics, in the mother country of that first colony, the same controversy raged with business predicting (as they are doing now) doom if higher wages were granted and with early trade unions banned and its members either hanged or transported to Botany Bay sounds very familiar?

But the author of those writings, who wanted his readers to understand commercial society in order it become better, gave a more considered answer to this persistent argument about wages and profits.

In short, moral philosopher Adam Smith in his Wealth Of Nations, 1776, said low wages made savings scarce and made money then expensive to borrow, leading to high interest rates.

And if businesses could get higher profits through lower wages, then they could afford to pay those inevitable higher interest rates. It would be tough luck for the workforce.

It may be worth tracking down those arguments in that book as there seem to be some good answers to this old question of wages and profits. It's a question whose answer might decide the outcome of the next election and the nation's future economy.

Australians do have very low savings. They do have stagnating wages and there are very large local business profits. Interest rates are higher here than they are in the rest of the world and are set to become higher.

It's worth a look, then, at that "old" book (downloadable for free on the internet). High wages, money in the banks, cheap loans and an expanding economy versus the opposite and what Australians are suffering now.

JAMES HILL

Redbank Plains

The robots are on the march for your jobs

IT APPEARS the spokesman for government claims lowering company tax would create jobs and security.

Some facts that caught my eye were when one bank with a reported profit of $5.3billion is contemplating shedding 5000 jobs.

This comes on top of the reported six-month profit by Woolworths which stands at 969million and the reduction of company tax in the US which appears to be insufficient for oil companies and has led to two rises in fuel prices with no reason for this.

The reported prediction of technology and robots is that they will eliminate $800 million worth of jobs by 2030. It would appear in the future it will require robots to control the population as the job losses kick in.

M W Kelly

Tivoli

Originally published as 18th century economics book still relevant