People should be patriotic so that they have pride in their nation and can individually make choices that act collectively for the betterment of the country. Look at most of the Asian countries (bar singapore) that have mountains of trash everywhere you look and the smell. It's just one example. The God/King/Country thing went out years ago and with the disaster that was the countries response to returning Vietnam soldiers, we have become very much patriotic with respect to ANZAC day. For me it is the most important day of the year. You could scrap all the others and I'd probably only raise an eyebrow at Australia day, but it would wind me up beyond measure if we got rid of ANZAC day,.
Birthdays are the most important day of the year to me Here we go: We have become very patriotic in regards to ANZAC Day, and not all for the better. ANZAC Day has been taken from a day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and turned into an almost religious event (that is very quickly forgotten once it is over for the year), if you choose to believe ANZAC Day is the most important day of the year that's fine and I understand that, but don't expect others to view it the same way as you. And as far as mountains of trash in Asia, it's got nothing to do with patriotism, it's hygiene and a lack of care for their wider environment that is the cause of that. Singapore has draconian legislation in place.
I dont think tax is evil, I think it is good, but I think AUSTRALIA'S tax system if totally F'd, just a small example.... I was with a friend the other day who is on the benefits and he received his rego bill for his car, I was curious so I asked how much and it was only 300 and some odd dollars!! Whereas I, who work/bust my arse in a full time job have to pay 600+, like seriously wtf? We reward the shit out of lazy/shifty people then also import lazy/shifty barsteds to also jump on the benefits, while I, as many other hard working Australians have to pick up their slack (I have nothing wrong with the system for the elderly and unabled, in fact I think those who are unemployed should recieve less while it goes to the elderly and disabled)
Just to be pedantic, do you mean you think that the uses of the taxes are good enough (but clearly imperfect) to justify the compulsory acquisition of people's property?
Your personal situation aside, can you elaborate on what taxes you deem are 'the good'? All taxation is the theft of wealth from one party for redistribution to another party. I personally wouldn't condone theft as the good, regardless who the beneficiaries are, but I'd be interested to hear what your opinion would be. Not an attack on you btw, just curious to look at the mindset behind the ideal.
"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation." ~ Vladimir Lenin
I would like to see income tax abolished. Instead receive a monthly tax bill with a concise breakdown of where the money goes. If it goes to the right places I would actually enjoy paying taxes to build the country up.
So we cut all taxes, what happens to the millions of people on some form of handout, dole bludgers,pensioners,the disabled, subsidised child care,medical rebates,family tax benifits, etc etc . millions of public servants who will lose there jobs , industry getting handouts to compete with cheap labour overseas . would we let people starve in the streets, would people need the religous fanatics to feed them . interested how we could go to being tax free and not have a huge depression
I don't take it personal, it's not a pretty topic to debate. But I CBF'd doing this right now, it's too hot in Melbourne
:lol: Liquidation planning. Obviously removing a cancer that sucks up and spits out over 30% of the economy can't happen overnight if you want to maintain most of the working capital and supply chains. How long is enough depends on the assets in question. As I posted here Whitlam increased the size of Government as a share of GDP by 5 percentage points in under 3 years. In those same 3 years he established universal healthcare, effectively nationalised higher education with free tuition, and massively increased public sector salaries. He more than doubled the size of cabinet from 12 ministers to 27. He enacted an ambitious cultural agenda that continues to shape Australia to this day. In just three years, Australia was given a new national anthem, ditched the British honours system, and abolished the death penalty and national service. If it took him 3 years to do this much damage we can unwind it in 3.
I concur that the two are indeed different, however I dont agree that nationalism is always a bad thing. The Chinese community in Australia may be nationalistic, but it doesn't mean its a bad thing. it could simply mean that they hold onto their Chinese tradition for generations to come, but it does not have to happen to the exclusion of being patriotic towards Australia.
My point exactly! What action are you referring to?? What are we supposed to do?? Don't YOU know??? Sitting at the computer bemoaning the sorry state our country is in? whingeing about being robbed, bitching about being enslaved, Complaining about how it's all a Ponzi scheme, That's your action? Who's DOING anything? Who has even suggested any course of action? Too much talk, no action.
Hawkeye answered this. Contrary to creating a communist economy within a short timeframe by killing all opposition with no regard to human welfare and then applying the thumbscrews economically, mentally and physically to continue the revolution (aka Russia, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba and even pre-WWII Germany & Italy in terms of fascism), the Libertarian agenda is anti-violence and having personal and local community responsibility and initiative. Such a system initially requires a significant cultural and intellectual rebellion not a violent one - aka the relevant early American history which flowed through the 1800's to the early 1900's before entering its demise principally through corruption of the monetary system. In Australia, we shouldn't need (or particularly want) violent action - particularly as this is typically very destructive. In the near term, if all that happened was that the Liberal Party was held to what it pretends to advocate in its party constitution we would be significantly closer to achieving the society we want. In contrast to the Hawke/Keating era the majority of the current ALP regime HAS been following the ALP Constitution (as internally inconsistent as it is) and more of the same erosion of freedoms and individuality is what we should expect from them.
Yeah, sorry, probably won't achieve all that much in your lifetime, but hey, that's the way these things go. But for clarification, think about how people used to think it was OK for men to hit their wives and that women shouldn't have an equal say etc,etc... That's what I mean. A change in thinking to say hey, this actually isn't OK and just because it is human tradition doesn't make it right. That's what we advocate here and it's kind of a one person at a time thing. OTOH, the more libertarian thinking people there are around me, the generally happier I am. So, that's all I'm aiming for. I'm not on any great crusade. You can take the ideas or leave them, I don't care, but I think there is a significant percentage that wants to explore them when they hear about them. I was one of them and obviously there's quite a few others in this thread alone.
Mate - maybe your brain has dried up from old age, not sure. you obviously don't know sh1t about what i do and don't do outside of this site. For what it's worth, i'm pretty active in politics and do way more than the average citizen does in trying to get my ideas heard and get attention drawn to issues i think warrent attention. you on the other hand are too yellow bellied to even utter the words of what you are clearly implying by "action". What the f.ck are YOU doing about things? oops - i forgot - you're a gubmint lover, so am quite happy to defend the indefensible... grow up!!
