I’ll take stat a step further, a prosperous economy and GOOD WELL PAYING jobs and their opportunities. Without demeaning workers or jobs, a society that revolves around nought but selling insurance to each other, making coffees, being on reality shows, being a shop assistant, and primarily having few work options above rote semi/unskilled roles is not the future I hope for my children. How would full employment where 99% are on minimum wage go? Engineering and most other high level professional jobs have already migrated offshore, and one political party has done a workmanlike job of castrating our national lab, CSIRO.
My point is it is far beyond where we shop and what we buy and who we buy from. It is national character and its aspirations. Ask a clever young American his goals - the answer will usually be making a new product or company, dominating the market, and buying up the competitors. A similar Aussie would be making a new product or starting a company to sell to a multinational, and that is what they do more often than become true heavy weights in their own right, although there are a few exceptions.
