Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS
If Harvey Norman can't buy & ship in bulk and remain competitive with one-off overseas transactions then they don't deserve to be in business, IMO.
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Exactly.
Australian businesses are providing overpriced products to Australians, under collusion with our corrupt government.
The last time I looked at our constitution, our elected MPs serve we, the people, and NOT businesses. Businesses should have ZERO say in our politics, and ZERO influence. Every politician that voted on this bill has broken the Australian constitution imho.
An example of gouging from local distributors/retailers - I wanted a book on luftwaffe '46 planes - Amazon US had a few copies going for USD $88 (in stock, ready to ship). Dymocks Australia? The VERY same book, AUD $420, not in stock, Six week wait, and shipping costs of $40 on top of that. Dymocks were not EVEN close to the Amazon price. This sort of price gouging is a regular occurence btw.
The same applies to many things - I had a look at JB Hifi recently to see if they stocked Sting's dream of the blue turtles album on CD? Nope. Nada. nothing. Sanity Australia (via their Ebay store) stocks it new. JB? Nope.
Australians buy overseas for a variety of reasons:
a) you simply CANNOT get the same product from ANY Australian retailer
b) Australian retailers price gouge Australians because there is no competition, and also price collude with other major retailers to "protect" their market
Instead of our government investigation Australian businesses, and punishing them, they punish the average working Australian.
revenue raising? How about our corrupt government punish those big US based corporations (Apple anyone?) that pay almost NO Tax in Australia. The government knows it, and does nothing about it. Why?
Why are Australians stupid enough to keep voting these governments in, time after time, when it's clearly evident that they do not care about Australians? I have no idea. They don't get my vote (Mr. Donkey Vote gets mine).
I suggest that Australians boycott the next election en masse and refuse to even show up to the voting booths. Sometimes civil disobedience is the ONLY way to enforce we, the people's wills on an unwilling government that no longer serves us.