Mike Hosking: Why governments really don't matter

Given we have paid so much attention to governments these past couple of weeks, and given if you read and believe everything you see, you would be forgiven for thinking there is a lot of trouble in the world.

And yet the numbers would tell us otherwise.

Which would lead one to ask who drives the news and why.

The best example is of course the United States. Not a day goes by without an avalanche of coverage on the catastrophy that is the Trump White House. Chaos and carnage.

Disaster at the top ... or so we read.

And yet what about the reality of America?

Confidence this week is at a 17-year high. How can you be confident if you believe that Trump is a disaster?

Perhaps the answer is people don't believe it.

Perhaps its because - and here's the key - government actually aren't as important as the media makes them out to be.

Those aren't the only numbers. America's got a pile of stuff from jobs to markets to sales to industries all going gang busters.

Who is in the White House isn't stopping them.

And what about Australia? That's a good news/bad news story for us.

Once again the headlines: the government is in chaos.

They've lost their majority.

They're bogged down in court cases over nationality

And yet.

There is a jobs boom going on. They have moved on from the mining slow down.

And once again - and this the bad news - we face the prospect of a brain drain.

More people are starting to leave our country for Oz again.

And that's before we get to us.

What a gutting number on jobs that must have been for National - 100,000 more jobs, the highest particpation rate ever, and they see it from opposition.

History shows if you deliver a strong economy you get to be government.

And yet ...

I haven't even got time to touch on Europe. The media would have you believe Europe is on the verge of collapse between Catalonia, Brexit and Greece.

And yet they too coughed up numbers this week that show growth and jobs and bright prospects

So here's the theme: Governments make a difference. Governments can cock it up, or stoke it up.

But governments also, by and large, aren't quite as big a deal as you might think.

Certainly not as big a deal as the headline writers would have you believe.

Mostly people carry on. Mostly people make their own decisons. Take their own risks. Live their own lives. Chart their own reality.

If you're waiting for a government to tell you what to do, where to do it, how to do it and when to do it, then good luck to you. But the rest of us are getting on with it.