Australians - at least most of them - are ignorant...

I think you may be correct in this summation, but, as an outsider (Brit) who has some experience of Australian society, I feel it only fair to point out that this is by no means peculiar to Australians.

Yes, there is a certain self-satisfied complacency amongst Australians (who, by the way, enjoy amongst the highest standards of living to be found on this earth) but no more than may be found amongst Swedes, or Brits, and significantly less than I have encountered amongst the majority of Americans in their fair land.

Australia is an educated first world society which has natural advantages and disadvantages. Amongst those advantages is the security provided by being the largest island (and smallest continent) on earth, the heritage of the (then) most technologically advanced society on earth, and a plethora of mineral resources. Amongst its disadvantages is a relatively small population, the tyranny of distance, and one of the harshest environments to be found outside Saharan Africa and Siberian Russia.

The Great Southern Land is not impervious to world wide economic influences, and it will never become a superpower as long as its population remains at modest levels (not, by any means, a bad thing). If governed sensibly and moderately it will remain a society with a high level of social justice, and a high standard of living (who could reasonably ask for more?)

Australia has a very high level of literacy, and a high overall standard of education; thus possessing the tools to move from agriculture, to mining, to value-added exports as and when these shifts become necessary.

I believe the above to be an accurate representation, and as a British citizen who is domiciled here temporarily, I do not have an agenda which involves inflating Australia's worth for nationalistic purposes. It is what it is, and Aussies can take justifiable pride in the enviable society they have built.

 

In this case the prostitute is the Federal Government.

 

Ah, Nat/Lib politics. Don't you just love it?

 

The pimp is China?

 

Australians are thankful for this extravagant applause of their "enviable society".

 

Americans enjoy a lower standard of living than Australians.

 

LOL, that is one way of putting it - but I do not believe my post to be applause, and it is far from extravagant. It is intended to be a simple statement of fact, and if anyone can refute any elements I have introduced; I should be grateful for the correction - provided it is based upon fact.

 

Guess what China has been worrying about lately? Jobs. The job market is tightening in China. Their overheated economy will eventually contract.

 

what do you mean enjoy?

going by the posts on this forum all americans ever do is whinge.

doesn't look like they enjoy ANYTHING.

 

Sir, you have insulted my honour as well as my country. I accept your challenge to a duel.

Firstly, America does not have a lower standard of living than the said antipode nation. Americans who belong to the upper middle class, and wealthy elite classes, have significantly higher standards of living than those societies.

Since Englishmen don't have an idea of the kind of lifestyles fortunate Americans are accustomed to, then they may refer to their Queen and Prince to get an idea of how well Americans do live in their country.

Finally, if one would like " facts" to make their presumptive comments on the standard of living in America, they would do best by traveling across the pond and experiencing the wondrous land that is the United States for themselves.

Good Day.

 

Pfffftttt,,, wait a decade or two when the official language of America will be Spanish.

 

Sorry, standards of living are LOWER in the US than in Australia.

 

Only if you go by the mean income which does not take welfare into account. Aussies have fewer rich and middle class and the US has many more people, is richer, and does assist those with low incomes but we expect people to work for a living instead of sitting on minerals (where most of your wealth is) and gloating.

BTW, I agree with the OP.

Does it seem like the Aussies here are starting to sound like Americans some complain about daily?

 

Oh cool, where is my mineral money?

 

Fat chance in seeing it mate.

Your share is in Gina Rinehart's bank account, my share has long disappeared with overseas investors.

 

LOL, I realise this is a joke, and I always appreciate an oblique sense of humour, so I accept your challenge of wet tram tickets at thirty paces - my seconds will be in touch.

Couple of points though - the wealthy elites of every banana republic live like Kings, so what else is news?

And I have indeed travelled across the pond, as well as travelling the length of both Atlantic and Pacific coasts - and staying with comfortably off, middle class, American families in Connecticut and the San Francisco Bay Area. So I have some notion of how middle class Americans live, and without wishing to give offence, the dimensions of the buildings in which I was generously housed, roughly approximated the servants' quarters at our family home in Kent. Not that size, in itself, is meaningful in the context of a comfortable home, but it is the metric most often alluded to by Americans. So no, I have no need to refer to Buck House or Windsor Castle to get an approximation of gracious living. Our family home was built the year before your nation was born, and has accommodation for eighteen guests (each in their own bedroom).

What is more, there is nothing like this in the USA -



or this -

 

Hmm correct, that appears to be ancient ruins, wealth formed in the times of the tyranny of nobility, which was ignorantly labeled as 'civilised'.

In the United States of America, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all, we build wealth from hard work and capitalism, not by being heirs and/or heiresses to old castles of failed empires of the past.

Here is just a peak of Americas royalty if you will, complete with our very own exotic domesticated house servants, built by hard work driven by the pursuit of happiness, not by the stroke of luck found in the nobility of a bloodline.

 

Once more, here are the facts when comparing America to that tiny island overseas, Britain.

Specifically when comparing the two upper middle classes together, statistically we have more people in the upper middle class who enjoy a better standard of living than there are british people altogether.

Links below.

American upper middle class

British upper middle class

 

Plenty of places like that exist in the U.S. How many examples you want me to find for you?

 

Just one private home which betters the accommodation to be found at Chatsworth House will do -

http://www.chatsworth.org/files/fom_estate.pdf

 

LOL! As I said before - I do appreciate an off-the-wall sense of humour. Very droll indeed!

 

Sorry to quote myself. But I finally saw the Sukhois. I was out at the airport (DRW has a share with RAAF Winnellie) and watched six of the taking off in the daylight, the last one must have been a bit of a lad because he stood the aircraft on its tail and did a high angle of attack takeoff with afterburners going. It was amazing. And then five, I think it was, USMC F/18s, I think they were the SuperHornet variant because they looked to have longer tailpipes than the RAAF F/A 18s I saw. Anyway I recognised the USMC aircraft..............they were flying on the wrong side of the sky

 

Nope.

Ever tried to keep in step with one?

 

Given that it was dotted around the world..........no, it didn't

 

[video=youtube;9toD_R6t1pI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9toD_R6t1pI[/video]

This is where we get REALLY obnoxious!