80% drop in the stock market in 2017

Spending is one part of the economic equation.

Gross domestic product is the other.

That's where the imbalance is found.

War products seem to be the future for your nation.

That precludes a need for constant war.

Our GDP is over $18 trillion dollars and growing. We represent less than 5% of the world's population. I think that speaks volumes about our country.
If California were to be a country, it would be the 7th richest in the world. I believe Apple is the richest company in the world today.
http://gonetworth.com/apple-net-worth/
They are spending $5 billion dollars to build their Campus 2 not one mile from where we live. It will house 12,000 of their workers.

On GDP, the USA is about 12th on the list.

Grain exports prop that up, considerably.

It's the same story with Australia.

Apple does most of their work in China nowadays, where suicides are at such a rate that they had to put safety barriers around their buildings.

Nothing to be proud of there.

12th on the list? Whose list? Please provide your source.

12th on the list? Whose list? Please provide your source.
Also, even if China's GDP is higher, their per capita income drops to one of the lowest of any country.

Many countries offshore their factories. That's called competition, and that's been going on for many decades.

Boeing is a good example.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/china/gdp-per-capita

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

Tenth, eleventh, then thirteenth on three recognised scales. Average, of course, being 12th.

Do you think countries should have a separate name for that type of profit, "being the labor to manufacture the goods is offshore? Maybe GIP instead of GDP

You're right, of coarse. I'm tainted from the fact that we live in Silicon Valley, and that family and friends are living pretty well. The average wage here is one of the highest in the country, as well as the cost of living. Our humble 3 bedroom home will sell for about $1.5 million. That amount of money would easily buy a mansion in most other locations in the country.

Yes, I remember reading that on wealth distribution, the US of A ranks about 90th on the planet. I think that was UN report.

I don't see that changing, no matter which major party is in power.

Our tory govt just handed our pensioners a smack up the head by introducing harsher asset tests, while scratching more operations from the free waiting list in hospitals. The most hated and untrusted LNP govt in history, headed up by a former goldman sachs bankster, no less.

I smell a revolution in the new year. They're even going to fence off parliament house, to keep the plebs at bay.

Most people depend on social security to carry them over in retirement, but that's a big mistake. We've been investing/saving since we got married at the rate of 15 to 20% of our income every year. We're not wealthy, but comfortable enough to be able to travel which I've done most of my adult life. Have visited over 80 countries, and even have friends in Moscow, Germany, UK, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Cuba, and all across the US.

What's happening here, is that people are being expected to mortgage their properties to fund their retirement, after a lifetime of paying taxes.

Not fair, in my book.

That's becoming popular in our country too! It's called reverse mortgage, and people can continue to live in their home until death or they vacate it. We see reverse mortgage ads on tv regularly.

It can also mean there's nothing left for the next generation, though.

My mother needed money for an operation, so she remortgaged. The minimum amount she could access was 80 grand. It gets moved into a separate account that you can access like a debit account.

You don't have to spend it all.

Doesn't your mother have senior care? We have what's called "senior advantage" in our country. I had kidney failure, and spent about a week in the hospital. My out of pocket cost was a little over $100/day.

The waiting list was too long, and the operation wasn't covered under private cover.

The operation was what they call "elective surgery". It actually made no difference.

Turns out she has sjogren's syndrome autoimmune disease.

Had to look it up, because I've never heard of it before now.
Here's what I found.
http://www.medifocus.com/sjogrens-syndrome/?assoc=Bing&keyword=sjogrens

Water purity problems are local, not federal. That some local government officials fail in their responsibilities is a local problem that needs to be handled locally.
Our city, Sunnyvale, measures biological and metallic content of our water regularly, and publishes it on their site.
Our water quality meets all standards. Even with the draught, our county saved over 27% water, but water shortage is still a problem. The San Joaquin Valley farms uses most of the water to grow our fruits and vegetables, and that feeds more than just Californians.
That's the reason why most of us are aware of the snow packs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where we get some of our water. We also have reservoirs, but they're about 40% of capacity.
Many in our county have brown lawns like ours. That's going to be our normal for many years to come. Some have even installed imitation grass, but that's not for me. I'll keep our brown lawn.

You could always use green dye on that grass. They do make such a thing.

No thanks. No artificial green dyes to color my lawn. Don't know what chemicals are in it that may damage our ecology.

Hell, the stuff is dead! No ecology left to worry about.