[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]

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

Oh yeah, the church goers prefer a bible beating to a cold beer. Morals, the upcoming challenge.

[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]

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!

I'm starting to like this place...........

[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]

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.

According to wikipedia:

In the 2006 Australian Census, the most commonly nominated ancestry was Australian (37.13%), followed by English (31.65%), Irish (9.08%), Scottish (7.56%), Italian (4.29%), German (4.09%), Chinese (3.37%), and Greek (1.84%).

When I say diversity, I mean people of color.

But anyway, I didn't mean to start a racial discussion. My only point was that the US has some racial and cultural tensions going on that I don't think are present in Australia. For one thing, you have no open border.. in the US, for decades now we've had immigrants streaming in through Mexico. To date, latinos haven't been all that quick to fully integrate as Americans. I'm not making a racial comment here, it's just an undeniable source of tension in the US.

I think all the immigration you have in Australia is legal immigration, where you pick and choose the best (you yourself said engineers and doctors welcome). That's a very different situation than having a wide open border where anybody from central or south america can just run on over.

I'll stop here, as this is getting off-topic into other areas.. bottom line is that Australia is doing well because it has a small population with a lot of land and natural resources. And, you don't have the burden of a fully funded military -- as an ally of the US and a member of the British commonwealth, your security is guaranteed.

When Australia one day gets to 200 or 300 million in population, my guess is that your economy wouldn't be as rosy.

[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]

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?

Settled by convicts, what do you expect?

Following the loss of the American Colonies, American War of Independence 1775-1783, Britain needed to find alternative land for a new British colony. Australia was chosen for settlement, and colonisation began in 1788. Rather than resorting to the use of slavery to build the infrastructure for the new colony, convict labour was regarded as a cheap and economically viable alternative. It is commonly reported that the colonisation of Australia was driven by the need to address overcrowding in the British prison system however it is simply not economically viable to transport prisoners half way around the world for this reason alone. Many convicts were either skilled tradesmen or farmers who had been convicted for trivial crimes and were sentenced to 7 years the time required to set up the infrastructure for the new colony. Convicts were often given pardons prior to or on completion of their sentences and were allocated parcels of land to farm.

[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]

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.

What I'm saying is that America can't just "do things the Australian way" and magically wind up with the same booming economy. The state of a society is more complex than just governmental policy -- other factors include culture, history, geography; in short, our situations are different and those can't be changed.

I contend that nations like Canada and Australia are doing well primarily because they're young countries in comparison to the US and the UK. We've already grown from sea to shining sea, almost all our oil has been tapped, almost all the gold has been mined. We really have no frontiers anymore. A nation like Canada is in a different position.. it's on the early side of the growth slope, small population and oodles of resources.

Now China is certainly not a young country.. but in effect they are, since they haven't been practicing free market capitalism for very long. Fact is, the US is just an older and now aged capitalist system, and is on the downward side of the growth slope.

EDIT: if we're going to compare societal models, I'm more comfortable looking to a country like France. Again there are the differences in culture which can't be discounted.. but at least France is on old-growth capitalist system. I just think any comparisons to younger nations are invalid from the start (any English speaking country with a history of rule of law, a tiny pop and lots of resources will have a good economy -- that's just a given).

[Sixstrings]

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

Isn't it ironic that the US is more likely wind up lookin like Mad Max than Australia is.

[SeaGypsy]

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

Isn't it ironic that the US is more likely wind up lookin like Mad Max than Australia is.

You posts are noted and I cede the point.

Quite freaky really, I was born in the USA and copped weirdness from my American extended family that I would choose to live in Australia over the USA. I haven't even used my USA passport for 18 years.

America has been so inward for so long it's about time it was forced to look out for leadership models.

[Sixstrings]

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

Isn't it ironic that the US is more likely wind up lookin like Mad Max than Australia is.

You posts are noted and I cede the point.

Quite freaky really, I was born in the USA and copped weirdness from my American extended family that I would choose to live in Australia over the USA. I haven't even used my USA passport for 18 years.

America has been so inward for so long it's about time it was forced to look out for leadership models.

That's funny, I was ready to cede the point to you.

I'd assumed you were a native-born Aussie, Sea Gypsy. From your posts you remind me of the Aussies I've met in my travels.. adventurous, good attitude, lots of fun.

Your more detailed posts about Australia have made me see that I've had a cliche in my head about that country. It's not, in fact, all Crocodile Hunters and Dundees.

After 18 years, did you pick up an Aussie accent?