Can We Survive Sanctions?

 

This picture above is a bit exaggerated, but also still incredibly true. Across the globe countries are crying out from the stress of the war which is being waged in the epicentre of one of the most important trade routes in the world. The strait of Hormuz.

The global economy has, foolishly, become too interlinked. Too many countries, including ours, are too reliant on foreign services and products just to do basic things like transport food. We rely on foreign imported diesel to run our food chain! That is insane. It is not just insane but actually genuinely dangerous. Whoever is responsible for this either hates this country or simply lacks all wisdom and sense.  

Of course, some countries have no choice but to rely on the global supply chain for the vast majority of what they need. Small countries with little or no resources need to be globally interconnected just to remain viable states. But we do not need to act like that here in Australia. It is not our problem that there are small countries that do not have much natural wealth to draw on. Historically, countries like that would find themselves subsumed into larger countries over time anyway. But even if they are not, that is a problem for them to sort out.

I have written and talked about this for years. If you set up your economy to be reliant on foreign tech, foreign oil, foreign military aid, foreign food chains, then you don't really have a sovereign country. You simply live in an economic zone, a trade nexus. You might technically have borders, but they are truly meaningless. And I mean truly. Borders in countries like this are treated as outdated lines on a map.

Have you noticed that the Australian people, the population, have zero say over who comes here? Have you noticed that we have zero say over our economic direction? Have you noticed that while most Australians would like us to be an energy superpower, no government leader ever even considers this? (Except arguably Kevin Rudd, but they rolled him when he tried to make Australians the major benefactors of our mining sector, remember. Look it up if you don't).

Why are Australians never consulted on the most significant policies which effect us? Because when your country is made to be reliant on foreign nations for virtually everything, you lose your sovereignty, in practicality if not officially. And your national leadership is replaced by loyal servants of that foreign trade nexus who will make sure the reliance on foreigner products, and militaries keeps happening. Because too many foreign powers make too much money off of us to let it stop.

This is why our politicians never listen to us on immigration, energy policy, or economic direction. This is why our government ramps up immigration in a housing crisis, and makes sure you are likely outbid for a home to buy or rent by a cashed-up foreigner. Their primary motivation is to keep the economic nexus humming, and if you can't keep up, you are no good for their primary purpose. They might buy your vote with welfare, but that is really just a way of keeping you from questioning their system, or pushing for another one. Making you have to compete with foreign buyers is an intentional economic selection process. To keep the economic nexus running it needs more and more people coming in and those with higher incomes will be favoured. This is a problem of so-called free-trade systems, they do not serve the people of their nations, but rather make people replaceable servants of economic interests.

I actually address this problem in my book Like a Roaring Lion, you can find it on Amazon or at Lockepress.com. There is a whole chapter in the book on how this happens. But I have a shorter version here on my blog, with a sermon video version if you would prefer to watch that.

Free trade was the heroin they used to get us hooked to the international supply. In a stable world you can get a lot richer as a nation from an interconnected system. But there are three major downsides: 1) You need to constantly replace your people, to keep the economic nexus going. 2) We don't live in a stable world. We live in an unstable world with temporary mirages of stability coupled with complacency. 3) The massive movement of peoples required to make anything like free trade possible, fractures virtually ever institution in your society, especially the family.

As I said small, resource poor countries need this kind of system. But how is that our problem? We are a massive resource rich country. We never needed any resources from overseas for a food supply chain. Every car in Australia could run on cheap LPG (gas). And our not inconsiderable oil supplies could supply our entire truck network. Taxes on foreign countries buying our gas could subsidize our diesel so that it was very cheap. Or you could balance out the costs internally with slightly higher LPG for cars that helps subsidize diesel for the transportation network. There are many options for a country as resource rich as ours.

Nations that can resist sanctions are only those that are self-reliant. Countries that got self-reliant, did it by stripping apart the foreign tech they had and learning how it works, and improving on it. We could learn to make most of the tech we need, pretty quickly. This is how Japan got good at making cars. Limited trade could be used to fill in gaps in our own industry. This is not isolationism. It is wisdom. Instability is the global norm. Not being dependent on foreign nations for most of what you need is a national security issue. Finally, people are seeing this now. But that's because they had to be smacked with reality in the face.

We have a highly educated nation. We had a serious industry sector, it is not too long gone that it cannot come back. There are two major roadblocks though. Firstly, can our national leadership give up its privileges of promotions to international boards after they have faithfully served the foreign economic nexus? That reality needs to change, otherwise our nation is in real trouble.

Secondly, can people get off their addiction to maximising their lifestyles on credit? What would Dave Ramsey say?

 

This post is funny.

But it also insightful.

We are a country that could save up for hard times, at the national level.

But at the leadership and voter levels our nation is addicted to consumption and debt.

We can't blame our government entirely for this. Our leadership is a product of our culture. A culture where dropping $150,000 on a 4wd, including mods, all on credit is the norm. A culture where living in a house you bought with maxxed out credit, is the norm. A culture where a pay rise means you buy a bigger house or newer car is the norm. A culture where holidays on the credit card are the norm. A culture where debt is a way of life. A culture that will be rudely shocked in hard times.

This meme is funny and incredibly insightful. Because it shows that our country could not stand up under sanctions not just because of poor leadership, but because of the quality of our population. We lack wisdom as a nation.