The sad reality of ‘Buy Queensland’

But then the drivers of increasing affluence broke down and by the 70s we contracted stagflation, an hitherto unknown economic disease, featuring high inflation coupled with low growth.

The infection arose from increasing wages without increasing productivity, borrowing without hope of repaying, and then being bushwhacked by the OPEC oil price shock. Sound familiar?

Then the tax revolt and the micro-economic reform revolution led first by Margaret Thatcher and then by Ronald Reagan revolutionised and modernised the world.

“Steering not rowing” became the catchcry with government removing itself as much as possible from physically delivering services, and determining prices or wages.

Barriers to entry internally and externally were dismantled, savings boosted, welfare targeted and taxes cut. Non-core assets were privatised.

Unions understood that higher wages destroyed jobs, so wage demands moderated in return for the compulsory superannuation scheme.

Governments cut waste and tried to only invest in projects that would make a positive return.

This period lasted until the fall of the Howard government and the results were world-best practice. Despite a recession early on, and the Asian economic crisis, annual per capita GDP in the 90s was 2.2%, equal second highest for the century.

In fact, the second half of the 90s gave us per capita GDP of 3.2% pa, which then moderated to 1.98% in the first half of the noughties.

It was these reforms that allowed us to weather the GFC, not the “go hard go households” spendathon that sprayed national wealth up against the wall, for negative return, and then only after we had moved beyond the crisis.

The dollar depreciated, acting as a shock absorber; flexible wage arrangements meant that workers could be retained part-time rather than laid off; and an outward-looking flexible economy rapidly found new markets in China.

And then we stopped either steering or rowing and began thinking about redistributing instead. We’ve become timid. Scared we can’t compete. Envious of others for having more than we do, and no longer confident we can grow the pie.