VERY OT - Politics

[Legbreaker]

From http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=3228:
And remember that this can be a very divisive subject so refer to the Forum Guidelines http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=2961 before posting:

Originally Posted by Targan

Australia is currently in the strongest position economically of any developed economy in the world.

FYI, Targan and I are on opposite sides of the political divide here in Australia, however I don't hold it against him that he's batting for the wrong team - he's only human after all.
It's my believe it was the previous eleven years of solid growth under the Liberal government which set up the current clowns so we didn't end up like Greece, or Italy, or Spain, or pretty much anyone else you can poke a stick at. Australia started out at the beginning of the GFC with a surplus of billions and there was talk about setting up a fund with the end result taxes would be lower and infrastructure costs (amongst other things) would be covered by the earnings of the fund. (A change of government, and again in my opinion their squandering of the surplus, along with the GFC scuttled it but otherwise it was on track to be implemented).

Even so, Targan's opinion is just as valid (if in my opinion misled) and I'll fight to the death for him to hold it and be able to voice it. The same goes for everyone else around the world.

There is a place for opposing viewpoints. To have just one group or individual in charge of a country for a long period of time leads to all sorts of problems. From my perspective over here, the US is suffering from that - there may be two parties, however there never seems to be any great difference between them. The UK appears to have a decent system with properly differentiated groups, and I honestly don't know enough about most other countries to comment with even passing accuracy.

What I was suggesting previously is doing to failing countries what happens to failing companies - bring in the receivers and administrators to sort out the mess. Australia (fortunately) isn't one of those countries (yet), but examples such as Greece certainly are.

[Legbreaker]

I read a short story years ago (can't recall name or author) about a space colony based on communisim. While everyone was treated as totally equal, nobody allowed to own anything, the society worked. However human nature eventually kicked in (a number of generations after the initial idealists had died of old age) and everything went to pot.

What I believe the author was trying to say is that Communisim works, as long as you're not a member of the human race...