[SeaGypsy]

Some current comparisons:

Aus unemployment/ 3-8% regionally.

Aus unemployment benefits/ continuous with rent assistance and medical benefits/ transport discount cards etc.

Aus banking system/ the "big 4" control 90% of the money supply under a highly regulated system allowing only minimal hedgeing and limited debt based leverage.

Aus medical system: taxpayers give 2% of their gross income up to $55,000 p.a after which they must show private insurance cover; current premiums are less than 1.5% for a single on $75,000

Aus gun laws/ only those who can show a lawfull purpose are allowed (gun club membership included) firearms; they must also have no convictions for any kind of violence. Gun deaths per capita less than 1% of the USA.

Aus pot laws: personal use is decriminalised in all States; trafficking is imprisonable but usually 1st offenders will serve no time at all. Powders are taken very seriously with dealers always locked up.

Aus Policing methods/ highly networked inter agency systems across all States and internationally; rigorous checking systems in place at the federal and international level to reduce wastefull investigations.

I could go on, perhaps others can point to significant differences in the Aussie Way?

Does anyone else think the USA could learn a thing or 2 here?

[ohanian]

You can buy Beer/Alcohol at 9am Sunday morning.

Unless you are underage that is...

[SeaGypsy]

Melbourne is the friendliest city to 'pissheads' where it is possible to drink 24/7 legally as long as one is capable of changing venues every 5 hours or so.

Nimbin is the pothead Mecca, it is openly sold on the strrets year round, with a huge pot festival on Mayday each year where a kilo of nature' finest can be had for $1000!

Darwin is the widerness freaks capital (where I work) in the middle of the world's last great tropical savannah wilderness.

Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands is the 'Paradise Found' with 1000 meter high mountains, full on tropical jungle, whitewater rafting, the best diving in the world and some of the best and cheapest food.

Perth is the Capitalist Mecca with the fastest growing Millionaire and Billionaire populations in the world.

Alice Springs, at the heart of the country, where you can buy anything and drive cycle or wolk into the most untouched deserts in the world; where every valley and cave is loaded with stone age artifacts.

Yeah yeah; blah blah....

[VMarcHart]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ohanian', 'Y')ou can buy Beer/Alcohol at 9am Sunday morning.

[Sixstrings]

Well SeaGypsy..

I don't think our two nations are comparable. For one thing, we have over 300 million people.. you have 21.8 million. You also have an ethnically and racially homogeneous society, whereas we are a melting pot. So, you have a a small population of very similar people with a big continent full of resources all to yourselves. With a setup like that, AND being smack dab in the growing Asian bloc, how could you go wrong even if you tried?

And the same can be said for Canada.. small population, big country, lots of resources.

Oh, and lets not forget that Australia and Canada get to leave the massive military spending to the US (lucky us, eh?).

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')imbin is the pothead Mecca, it is openly sold on the strrets year round, with a huge pot festival on Mayday each year where a kilo of nature' finest can be had for $1000!

[SeaGypsy]

Australia and Singapore are the 2 most ethnicly diverse countries in South East Asia; the white Australia Policy has been dead for 40 years.
The idea Australia is racially homogenous has to be from someone who has never been there or not for a few decades.

[mcgowanjm]

What can the USA learn from Australia?

That droughts can last forever. That Southern California's Climate
is influenced almost exactly the way Australia's is.

That coal fired plants are indeed death factories.

That a River System can indeed be destroyed.

And that no matter how bad it gets, people can be found to go on the MSM and claim that growth is indeed the answer to all of our problems.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'A')ustralia and Singapore are the 2 most ethnicly diverse countries in South East Asia; the white Australia Policy has been dead for 40 years.
The idea Australia is racially homogenous has to be from someone who has never been there or not for a few decades.

[Maddog78]

I've travelled a lot but never have made it to Aus.
I'd sure like to get to the Brisbane/Gold Coast area someday.

[SeaGypsy]

How about spoonfeeding welfare and royalties to indigenous people for 40 years leads to the worst health and crime statistics in the develpoed world?

Or you can't cut down 98% of your old growth forest with out destroying both the groundwater system and microclimate humidity and precipitation?

Or if you don't have cops en-masse at night club closing time innocents will be regularly bashed to death by ice cooked brain dead zombie teenagers?

Or if you plough up all the agrible river banks and farm them under high nitrate/ phosphate crops you will destroy the inshore reef aquatic system?

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'H')ow about spoonfeeding welfare and royalties to indigenous people for 40 years leads to the worst health and crime statistics in the develpoed world?

Or you can't cut down 98% of your old growth forest with out destroying both the groundwater system and microclimate humidity and precipitation?

Or if you don't have cops en-masse at night club closing time innocents will be regularly bashed to death by ice cooked brain dead zombie teenagers?

Or if you plough up all the agrible river banks and farm them under high nitrate/ phosphate crops you will destroy the inshore reef aquatic system?

[SeaGypsy]

This page is from the department of immigration; showing current migration breakdown: (page 6)


http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publicatio ... -dec08.pdf

It includes information that 41.9% of current migration (close to 200,000 all told) is from Oceanea, SE & NE Asia with another 5% from Southern Africa. That's about 100,000 'coloured folks' a year; there are few parts of Australia where this has not had a substantial effect.
In the parts of Australia I work I am often in a 1% white minority on Aboriginal communities.

[SeaGypsy]

My own 1st Australian ancestors were free settlers from the Irish Potatoe famine refugee wave during the late 1820's. They went from starving to being given 10 square miles 20km from the State Capital of Melbourne; they became rich off the back of sheep then racehorses.

There are many differences between the USA and Australia, that is not really my point here. I am looking at the current state of affairs in both countries with regards to a range of political and economic issues which I can see the USA benefitting from taking Australia's lead on.

[NeoPeasant]

I learned everything I need to know about post peak Australia from the movies.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'T')here are many differences between the USA and Australia, that is not really my point here. I am looking at the current state of affairs in both countries with regards to a range of political and economic issues which I can see the USA benefitting from taking Australia's lead on.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NeoPeasant', 'I') learned everything I need to know about post peak Australia from the movies.

[SeaGypsy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NeoPeasant', 'I') learned everything I need to know about post peak Australia from the movies.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NeoPeasant', 'I') learned everything I need to know about post peak Australia from the movies.