I am certain that I will live to see the day when all of our milk is processed in China and shipped back to us, unless things change for the better in a hurry (but I am not sure when or if that will ever happen).
Dunno about that - but it's only the very short shelf life of raw milk that will prevent it!
I got to thinking one day, if someone was to rebuild these mowers here in Australia, or even carry on the legacy of trying to produce an all-Australian made engine or mower, they would really have their work cut out. Where are the foundries? Where are the moulds? Who would be even willing to contemplate such a venture today, with the market place flooded with cheap overseas imports? Where are the skilled labourers, designers, engineers and craftsman gone? Even the bolts, nuts and screws would in all likelihood come from China.
It wouldn't be possible to produce such items here by the traditional methods now, due to the loss of essential skills, as you say. It would only be possible to do it by state-of-the-art automated/robotic methods - CNC machining, 3D printing, robotic welding and assembly...
We also now live in a world so dominated by rules and regulations and safety that we are seeing a whole generation of our children being wrapped in cotton wool. Trees have to be felled in parks in case a branch should fall on "Little Johnny's" head while he is playing. Sand is now regarded as being unhygienic and is being replaced with rubber mats, as is lawn and concrete. I expect any day soon they will be wrapping up playground equipment and posts in bubble wrap in case some kid is texting and not looking where is he walking.
While I agree that the pendulum has swung too far one way, there's another side to the 'Elfin Safety' coin too, you know. A very dark one - the current resurgence of 'black lung' [aka coal miners' pneumoconiosis] in Queensland is a good example. The old occupational diseases are still lying in wait; all too ready to bite us in the arse, with big dark teeth.
As a good mate told me recently, Australia cannot even manufacture toothpaste or mouthwash any more, and many of our foods now come processed and packaged from overseas, and there are only a couple of soap manufacturers.
Well, the major brands of toothpaste may have gone offshore, but I just checked the bathroom cupboard, and the Aldi house brands are still made here! So is their bath soap.
We cannot even knit socks any more and you don't mend anything, you just throw it in the bin and buy a new one. The art and science of making many simple household products is being lost. Almost 95% of all non-food products on our shelves are "Made in China". I commented that if ever there is another global war, or even a war involving only the Asian countries, Australia will soon run out of basic essentials. There are craft industries making small amounts of old-fashioned products, but they would not be able to keep up the demand. Will we learn how to make things for ourselves again, or will we simply starve? My mate then laughed and said "Well mate, if ever there is a war the enemy will be able to smell us coming! And we can fend them off with our terrible bad breath!" Ain't that the simple truth!
Sadly accurate, that.
But in the global view, large scale mass production of non-food goods is going down the high-automation route, and that will catch up with even the likes of the Chinese and Koreans etc before very long.
I do see some growth opportunities for artisanal and specialist niche products, but our politicans' strategy of becoming a 'service economy' is just crazy.
I'm irresistibly reminded of the tale of a legendary island off the coast of Britain, whose inhabitants eked out a precarious living by taking in each others' washing!
And putting our bets on tourism? Even crazier! It's been shown time and time again, that this is the
least stable of industries, and extremely subject to events like economic crashes and even minor natural disasters...
