I Live In Australia

[Playinghardball]

[Iwasthere]

1. It is our war industry ....

Good on ya!!

[librechik]

2. my son lives in Australia--the first time I visited him there

he put his Medicare palm in my hand and said. Thank goodness--I live in a country that WORKS!

How I envy him.

[snooper2]

3. The also have Fat Aussie Barstard

LOL,

been subscribed for some time

[xtraxritical]

9. Keep it down under please.

[Initech]

4. I want to move there!

[Aviation Pro]

5. The reason Australia has a safety net like it does...

...is because the population hovers around 23 million and they have oil, gas and mining industries that supports the distribution of wealth.

However, if you go, and I've spent three months out of the last seven there (Melbourne, Perth), pack a big bag of cash as the place is unbelievably expensive.

[Cleita]

6. We have industries that should be nationalized for the good of the

population, not for the profits of international companies.

[City Lights]

11. Exactly! nt

[LeftInTX]

27. Or at least be exposed to higher taxes and regulations.

[Arugula Latte]

8. I don't see why a bigger population should mean a lack of safety net.

I mean, if you have more people, yes you have more people who need services, but you also have more people paying into the system.

[Cleita]

12. It's just another right wing talking point in 2D.

3D tells us that exponentially there will always be enough if it's distributed across the board instead of funneled to a small number of privileged.

[Art_from_Ark]

26. I don't want to sound like a right-winger, because I'm not

But if you have, say, $50 billion coming in from mineral revenues, it's easier to divide that among 23 million people than among 310 million people.

But as someone else mentioned, the bloated defense budget siphons off a lot of money that could be used to strengthen the safety net in the US.

[marions ghost]

22. And pay checks are fatter

You can live a really good life in Australia.

Why can't we have that here?

[galileoreloaded]

24. exactly. and its rascist as fuck. nt

[Aviation Pro]

32. Really? Racist as fuck?

Too bad you haven't spent any time there and rely on some stupid fuck's assessment of another country's culture. I suggest you either:

1. Visit Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney or Darwin and see how multi-cultural these cities are, or
2. Shut your face and keyboard hole to keep your ignorance from showing.

Welcome to the ignore list.

[galileoreloaded]

34. lived there for 2 years. opinion stands. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

36. I dated an Australian expat for two years

We went to see an Australian film called "The Fringe Dwellers," which was about an Aboriginal family living in a small town and dealing with all kinds of disguised and not-so-disguised racism, and I asked my friend if small towns were really that racist, and he said that in his experience, they were worse.

So yes, they have immigrants from all over the world, but it's only recently that they've reconsidered their treatment of the Aborigines.

Remember "the stolen generation"?

Or if you can get hold of the novels of Arthur Upfield, who wrote in the 1930s to 1950s, you'll cringe at some of the things he says about Aborigines. On the whole, he's a wonderful writer who brings the landscape alive, but every once in a while, he comes up with something that makes you roll your eyes--and he was probably what passed for a liberal in those days, because his bad guys hate and abuse the Aborgines.

[Nye Bevan]

7. All that AND Crocodile Dundee.

Not to mention shrimp on the barbie. The Sydney Opera House. AND the actual Queen of England as your Head of State. What's not to love?

On edit: I forgot Ayer's Rock too!

[MattBaggins]

10. Meh.. The Queen as head of state is one thing that doesn't impress me.

Who needs an unelected has been who believes in their divine right as a head of state?

[GermanWatcher]

13. The way you put it...

... that sounds like George W. Bush.

[MattBaggins]

14. mamma always said

if the shoe fits get out the kitchen

[hrmjustin]

16. Welcome to DU my friend!

[whathehell]

18. Meh too.

Not much for monarchies.

[Cal33]

20. She's mainly a figure head for state-occasions. She is not a real political

power. If the Brits want such a system, it's their business.

[MattBaggins]

23. So much wrong with that

I have the right to criticize if I choose
We are talking about Aussies not Brits

the Queen receives certain foreign intelligence reports before the Prime Minister does

The Queen can choose the Prime Minister. By convention she goes with the vote but there is no written constitution saying she has too. She can refuse to dissolve the parliament if a new election is requested.

She gets a weekly meeting with the prime minister that the common folk are told to fuck off if they want to know what was discussed.

She can declare war.

They can and do quite often, veto or kill bills they do not like.

The power of the Monarchy is way out of line for unaccountable figureheads.

[whathehell]

25. No kidding.

Everyone here knows that, and of course it's "their business", but if a poster, like the one upthread,

is high-fiving it on DU, we have a right to give our opinion of it.

[SwissTony]

38. To be fair to Lizzie

she has said it's a matter for the Australian people.

We had a referendum a few years ago about whether we should whether we should retain the Queen as (nominal) head of state. But the Prime Minister (John Howard - great work on the gun laws, arsehole on everything else) framed the question in such a way that people who wanted Oz to become a republic were actually campaigning *against* the republican option. To give you an analogy, suppose you are asked "What is your favourite colour?" and the options were a) red and b) blue. How do you vote if your favourite colour is green?

Republicans (nothing to do with the GOP) are hoping for a new referendum when the Queen passes on.

[Aviation Pro]

17. They don't call them shrimp...

...prawns.

A lot of friends of mine suggested that I go diving on the Great Barrier Reef while I was there. They had no clue how big the country is. From Melbourne bank on a three hour flight to Cairns, from Perth six.

Americans learned about Oz from Crocodile Dundee making us complete fucking morons on the subject.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. I lived there in the 70's and visited several times in the 90's, and you're right.

The continent is roughly the land area of the lower 48 with the population roughly equal to the San Diego, LA metroplex. There are more miles of limited access freeway in the LA basin than there is on the entire continent of Australia.

I lived in Alice Springs from '72 through '74. I had the opportunity to get out on a cattle station in the NT during Christmas time one year (height of summer) - a small place of a mere 787 square miles (roughly 503,700 acres). It was a 6 hour drive from the station to The Alice.

You could make a turn off the road in some parts of the NT and WA and literally walk for days and days without seeing a single sign a human had been there before. No fence lines, no power lines, no tire tracks......nothing. Try doing that in the lower 48.

Not only do they call shrimp "prawns", they call Lobsters "bugs".

Great people though. Get to know them and they will give you the shirt off their back. I speak from experience. I have a shirt. Seriously.

[Aviation Pro]

35. Yep, exactly my experience....

....they don't call the Great Australian Desert, GAFA (Great Australian Fuck All) for nothing. (Actually, it is a wide expanse of nothing human).

The populations centers are located near the coast because the country is literally turning into a continent sized desert. Fresh water availability is a big issue there.

And, yes, they are some of the friendliest people I've ever met, but I reckon when 90% of the population lives at the beach you can't help but be friendly.

[whathehell]

28. A distinction without a difference..

"Americans learned about Oz from Crocodile Dundee making us complete fucking morons on the subject"


Not this American, and btw, you might want to speak for yourself. You and your circle

may be "fucking morons on the subject", but kindly exclude the rest of us.

[Aviation Pro]

31. Good....

...how much time on the ground do you have in Australia?

I'm guessing none.

Welcome to the ignore list.

[whathehell]

37. Even better

from my standpoint. Buh bye.

[hfojvt]

15. hmm, according to this, Australia is very unequal

the poorest 10% has 2% of all income, and the richest 10% has 25.4%.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/as.html

Maybe it is less unequal if you figure in the value of healthcare benefits.

And I will continue to roll my eyes at "the 99%".

[moondust]

21. Yes but how many billionaires?

I'll bet the U.S. has more! And that's what's important! Gotcha!

[Number23]

29. And you'll pay three times as much to download a song off of itunes

And a three bedroom house with no air conditioning will easily cost you $600K. Don't get me started on the absurd prices for food and clothes.

Every culture has its shortcomings. There are plusses and minuses everywhere.

[uponit7771]

30. +1

[newmember]

33. When we stop being the policemen of the world maybe we can focus on our country

[LostOne4Ever]

39. I want to go there someday

Especially now after seeing this thread and this picture from Facebook (From Americans against the Republican Party):

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=576840329004503&set=a.115013885187152.12534.114270361928171&type=1&theater