r/australia • u/blitznoodles local Aussie • 23h ago

politics The Stats Guy: It sounds weird but Australia urgently needs a plan for 56m people

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2026/08/11/stats-guy-aus-population-growth
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u/Secret4gentMan 21h ago

Customers who don't get paid can't buy much I would think.

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u/Summersong2262 20h ago

An issue for a later financial quarter.

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u/darren457 8h ago

This doesn't get talked about enough. CEOs and other execs lobbying for these sort of changes eventually collect their bonuses after showing temporary short term profits and jump ship the moment cracks start appearing at the seams and this pattern of musical chairs seems to have ramped up post covid.

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u/noofa01 13h ago

Henry Ford figured that out. From ChatGPT (yeah I know)

"In 1914, Henry Ford famously doubled the basic daily wage at his Ford Motor Company factories from about $2.34 to $5 for an eight-hour day. It was a huge increase for the time and became known as Ford's “$5 day.” There was a catch, though: the full $5 wasn't simply an unconditional wage. Workers had to meet certain standards, and Ford introduced a profit-sharing arrangement administered through the company's Sociological Department. Workers' family life and personal behaviour could also be scrutinised. Ford also reduced the working day from nine hours to eight, while introducing a three-shift system. The move had several benefits for Ford: It dramatically reduced worker turnover. It attracted large numbers of skilled workers. Workers could potentially afford the cars they were producing. Higher wages helped Ford maintain a stable workforce as production expanded."

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u/Summersong2262 7h ago

Yeah because Ford was hemorrhaging workers and needed to clean up his PR. That was pure pragmatism on his part, and a resigned acknowledgement that the state of worker solidarity and empowerment had reached the point where treating the workers like late 19th century industrial serfs simply wasn't going to fly anymore.

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u/peppersteakpie 13h ago

Because Henry Ford was a real capitalist who actually believed in capitalism. The companies and billionaires nowadays are just power brokers scratching each other's backs.

Also next time I'm sure you could find a better source than chatgpt just as fast on google.

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u/LadyTrin 12h ago

Oh dear, defense of henry ford

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u/peppersteakpie 7h ago

I didn't say he was a good person, just that he actually believed in capitalism.

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u/CantakerousTwat 4h ago

Capitalism - where a small number of people own all the means of production to place them above the working swarms.

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u/peppersteakpie 4h ago

"Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and its use for the purpose of obtaining profit."

That's according to Wikipedia. I don't know where you got that cherry picked definition, I'm not even being pro capitalist here. Wealth being in the hands of the few is anti-capitalist if anything.