Productivity? Government is a dead weight on the economy

The mechanism for increasing wages is simple, unless you want to make money organising labour and intimidating businesses. A rich economy produces rich people who buy and do things, this produces employment and as unemployment decreases, labour shortages increase and workers demand higher wages. Because the businesses are making a lot of money they can afford to pay the wage increases. In fact, the best most successful businesses will compete for the best employees. If you doubt me, check out the average earnings of a Google employee ($189,684 p.a.).

Unions don't need to worry about AI skimming-off their wages. Their basic concern should be that the government will help them to divert so much money that their employer will not be able to invest in their business enough to become the next Google or Meta.

But we do need to worry. In a world suddenly grown very dangerous, our only comparative advantage is the strength of our economy. Can it survive the depredations and word games of the industrial relations warlords running Australia?