That’s also why our nice Australian dollar, which only a few short weeks ago was getting close in value to an American dollar, had dropped so much. The nasty world hasn’t simply decided to punish us, it is just calling up the debt.

It also means, in desperate hindsight, that in the past 10 years we shouldn’t have had those inevitable election campaign tax cuts. Too many of us flooded the money into real estate. That made us richer on paper, but it reality it just made housing too expensive. The government could have gone for even bigger surpluses. But it was always productivity that we needed. Train us for the right jobs. Build the right infrastructure.

Why, we might then have been able to afford the plasmas and the vast range of other goods we have to import to make us happy. We were all too greedy.

TALK of plasmas reminds us that finally someone has set a date to chop off our old-fashioned analogue TVs and switch to digital.

This must be of sad note to the commercial television stations. They have to put out a lot of money to complete the change at a time when revenue is falling with the cautious economy and advertisers are wary because we are finding so many clever ways not to watch their incessant efforts.

A couple also face horrid private equity debt.

The ABC and SBS have their own worries. And because we are wise people, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy – that’s the government – is asking us to say what we want from these broadcasters “in the digital age”.

Here’s a simple one for SBS. Go back to your charter and confine your blasted commercials to the start and end of programs. Don’t let them intrude like a would-be Seven, Nine or Ten.

The ABC may not have waited for us. The discussion paper we are asked to discuss concentrates very much on the changes we want from the switch to digital. It’s full of things like “harnessing new technologies” and “efficient delivery”.

The overall role is set out, too, but it is obvious the government really wants to know how we want to get the message rather than the message itself.

The ABC itself clearly wants more money. That’s not new, and with the switch to digital it has a good claim. What’s not clear is what it wants to put in its broadcasts/telecasts/podcasts/ vodcasts/whatever.

It’s got rid of its natural history unit, it’s pulled out of big documentaries and it’s forcing the redundancy of 35 television producers and researchers. It seems to be part of a plan to outsource as much as possible to the private sector. Is this heartfelt policy, or is it playing poor? Where’s all the drama? The redundancies certainly have the right management twaddle title – “TV Production Pool Efficiencies Initiative”.

And Radio National, where older people listen directly and younger people try later on podcasts, suddenly has decided to get rid of morning staples on religion, media, sport and a couple of others.

Don’t worry, though. We’re told that other product will be provided. Good heavens. It sounds like the old days at Fairfax.

All media need to monitor what they produce to make certain they are relevant to their audiences. The ABC, with no direct commercial strain, also has the duty not to dumb things down. We have enough of that elsewhere.

Let’s hope we don’t get so carried away with innovation and efficiency in our discussions that we forget to say what we want to look at or listen to

FINALLY, the absurdity of our sporting arenas has been exposed again. Adelaide United can’t fit a crowd. Port Adelaide, if it could free itself of SANFL/ AFL obligations, would be far better off at Adelaide Oval. Leading commentator Rex Jory wants Adelaide Oval dug up and replaced by a covered dome. That would probably lose us our AAA credit rating – and Treasurer Kevin Foley presumably would rather have root canal therapy.