The State Of Your Nation
pimlicosquirrel
772 Posts
Boil it down, how are you doing? What do you foresee, what are you happy about, what do you fear?
Australia feels kind of golden to me right now. The pro's in a nutshell and the things I currently care about include a low unemployed rate, moderate interest (high compared to the rest of the world), high property prices (which is good or bad depending on your portfolio), a strong currency (good for me, bad for others), and a high demand for minerals which we abound in. We have our first woman Prime Minister in a minority/populist government with a large swing towards the Green Party and a mix of influential independents really holding them to account in the senate. This feels good to me and bad to others, I like the sway towards the greens (13% last election 2010) and the influence it has had on policy and legislation the last year, I also like the influence a hand full of independents has had. It's difficult to boil it down but some crackpots and marginalized or entrenched politicos have had to grow up and essentially been the deciding factor in some heavy reform or crucial pieces of legislation. Everybody got paid basically.
This year we have a couple of major pieces of legislation kicking in which I am for and a lot of people are not. A carbon pricing mechanism and a resource super profit tax . We have recently repealed some draconian labor laws which seriously put the fear in me, we are (kind of) on track to a budget surplus (fuck it, close enough) and for the most part have been investing heavily in social programs.
The things currently on the table and news worthy are first world problems like, gambling reform, gay marriage and a new indigenous constitution. All of which I feel strongly about but are largely immaterial compared to the issues other nations face.
Some negative shit, we are xenophobic and the arrival of "boat people" has us shook (or so the media would have us believe). There were approx 5000 people who arrived in Australia via boat last year. 1/10th of the illegal immigrants who reportedly entered Australia in 2011. There are real and pervasive factions in the community who would deny these people harbor because they are "queue jumpers". Personally it makes me sick. The indigenous people here largely continue to live in poverty with high mortality rates and heavy addiction, abuse, homelessness, etc. We can't seem to get a grip on this and it drags on me heavily.
State/city issues are wide and varied, but since I've no more lemons and need to duck up the road lest my G&T's suffer I'll just do it like this....GOOD: relaxed liquor licensing laws = more quality bars, abundant city planning/revitalization initiatives en route, new bike lanes like whoah, home buyers initiatives. BAD: poor public transport, congestion, urban sprawl, fracking, red tape, shop front retail is fucked in the game.....
It's difficult to condense the perception of your own country. My main gripe right now would be a lack of future economic and environmental planning, our resources are limited and beyond that (it seems to me) we are a consumer economy. Which is no plan at all.
Australia feels kind of golden to me right now. The pro's in a nutshell and the things I currently care about include a low unemployed rate, moderate interest (high compared to the rest of the world), high property prices (which is good or bad depending on your portfolio), a strong currency (good for me, bad for others), and a high demand for minerals which we abound in. We have our first woman Prime Minister in a minority/populist government with a large swing towards the Green Party and a mix of influential independents really holding them to account in the senate. This feels good to me and bad to others, I like the sway towards the greens (13% last election 2010) and the influence it has had on policy and legislation the last year, I also like the influence a hand full of independents has had. It's difficult to boil it down but some crackpots and marginalized or entrenched politicos have had to grow up and essentially been the deciding factor in some heavy reform or crucial pieces of legislation. Everybody got paid basically.
This year we have a couple of major pieces of legislation kicking in which I am for and a lot of people are not. A carbon pricing mechanism and a resource super profit tax . We have recently repealed some draconian labor laws which seriously put the fear in me, we are (kind of) on track to a budget surplus (fuck it, close enough) and for the most part have been investing heavily in social programs.
The things currently on the table and news worthy are first world problems like, gambling reform, gay marriage and a new indigenous constitution. All of which I feel strongly about but are largely immaterial compared to the issues other nations face.
Some negative shit, we are xenophobic and the arrival of "boat people" has us shook (or so the media would have us believe). There were approx 5000 people who arrived in Australia via boat last year. 1/10th of the illegal immigrants who reportedly entered Australia in 2011. There are real and pervasive factions in the community who would deny these people harbor because they are "queue jumpers". Personally it makes me sick. The indigenous people here largely continue to live in poverty with high mortality rates and heavy addiction, abuse, homelessness, etc. We can't seem to get a grip on this and it drags on me heavily.
State/city issues are wide and varied, but since I've no more lemons and need to duck up the road lest my G&T's suffer I'll just do it like this....GOOD: relaxed liquor licensing laws = more quality bars, abundant city planning/revitalization initiatives en route, new bike lanes like whoah, home buyers initiatives. BAD: poor public transport, congestion, urban sprawl, fracking, red tape, shop front retail is fucked in the game.....
It's difficult to condense the perception of your own country. My main gripe right now would be a lack of future economic and environmental planning, our resources are limited and beyond that (it seems to me) we are a consumer economy. Which is no plan at all.
Comments
Last year 572,000 people immigrated to the UK, and nearly 20,000 asylum applicatons. Considering the relative differences in landmass, what are they complaining about?
Things are screwed here, but the tighter things get, the louder the calls for greater financial equality (ie tax the rich, curb bank bonuses etc), which is a good thing. Whether or not things change is a different matter, but I predict (on nothing more than gut feeling!) that we've got a couple more years of paying off the national credit card before things turn around. Whether or not society can survive more riots, union strikes, pension protests, world economy collapses etc is another matter. Interesting times indeed.
Please change your screen name to Sydney Wombat or something.
Ok, but you better be a large carnivorous mammal of the genus Canis, packing a coherent radiation emission weapon.
sayin'
Regardless, there is a genuine fear here and it can win you an election.
And those figures don't include illegal immigrants!
Same story here though; the right-wing media over here is always stoking fears that we're about to become an Islamic republic, an east-european/slavic dumping ground, or that refugees from either side of the Hutoo/Tootsie genocide will re-enact shit on the streets of London... despite Harvey Canal's assertion that we're 99.9% white. Each wave of immigration just brings a new dish to the menu, so it's all good
Currently dislike my job, but feel lucky to have one that's 'for life' should I want it.
It feels like our economy is stuck in this service-sector bullsh*t, and while I watched programs that talk about the ideas/innovation sector being fertile here, that's surely only prosperous for a small percentage - we can't all be doing jobs that export great ideas around the globe. Then there's the financial sector that drives our economy. Considering how f*cked that is, I don't see how we can rely on that. Until China screws up, and it's no longer cost-efficient to out-source manufacturing, I'm not sure if we'll ever fully recover. And then there's the problem of a nation of degree-holders not wanting to do the shitty jobs, which is why immigration from poorer countries is so high... it's all a mess, but I keep telling myself that the best music scenes have arisen in these circumstances.
Any economists on the Strut with a good idea of what's going on/time scales etc?
I'm just going on what I can glean from the press, and I don't really understand how markets work.
pretty much on point.
buy physical gold and silver.
You got it wrong, I am an Eastern European Jewish Butcher, as the name implies.