ALGOREisRICH

Thank you for epitomising the ignorant stereotype I allude to above.

It is regional team versus city teams really though.

This nation does not want to populate outside the south east.. Just wants to send enough worker bees to go out and plunder some honey, err mean money, from regional Australia and bring it back to queen bee in Canberra.

Well written Squeers re your longer post above.

Al
I am surprised you are not for income redistribution given your Christian beliefs. What was that about a rich man and entry into heaven?

Serioulsy though, you don't think there is a case for reducing income disparity? What are your reasons?

Dear Pelly

you are surprised I'm not for income re-distribution ? :)

I am... I'm all for it.. but not by LAW..by grace.

The day you make laws and start ripping off those who have done well with their brains and ingenuity and tell them "Oh.it's for the good of the proletariat" as Queers would have us believe... that is the day where you destroy all the energy and desire to produce, improve and create wealth.

The difference between the early Church in Acts 2 and Squeers socialism..is that Squeers does not care one scrap whether you WANT to share your hard worked for bounty.. he just wants it because of ideological reasons.

"We are a socialist society.. all are equal" yep..equally poor and depressed and disillusioned after having had the future which 'could have been' stolen by some remote callous beaurocrat of a planned economy.

Communism..whether in pure Marxist form or the dumbed down soft socialism we are attacked by daily.. does not.. is not and will never 'work'...because it is an idea based on a false premise... That people by nature 'want' to work for the benefit of some distant 'other'.

The developed version of ancient Israelite social life, in the New Testament is not tied to any geographical location.. it is the Body of Christ..the Church, and as such it does care for those same disadvantaged people. (poor, orphan and widow etc)

But please.. don't force it on us as a secular law. We have a much higher law to which we look.

SQUEERS said:

//I thought Rudd had made a shrewd move with the mining tax, but now it seems he's a dead man walking, and all thanks to the power of ideology, creature comforts and a 'pull the ladder up' mentality.//

(Squeers prefers the 'pull down' approach)

Shrewd move ? it was probably the kiss of DEATH to Labour...not so shrewd to think you can just take...that which others labored for under contractual conditions which the government itself allowed.

Thanks Sowat and Pelican for the endorsement.
I am unashamedly for some kind of democratic-socialist system whereby a lid is put on anyone's personal wealth. There shouldn't be any billionaires, or even multimillionaires, nor should it devolve to their kids. Heredity is as anachronistic as monarchy. Yet it's not enough to just redistribute wealth equitably within national borders when commodities are produced by exploited labour abroad, or the raw materials or produce is extracted from the devastated ecologies and habitats of the species that have as much right to the planet as humans have.
I'm more interested in living sustainably; there's no reason why we couldn't all enjoy a high quality lifestyle that didn't rely on endless economic and concomitant population growth within closed systems.
The trouble is, capitalism is so ideologically entrenched, and irrationally defended, beyond any or all voices of reason, that no one can or dares imagine life under any other system. Yet this system is in a state of terminal decay, economically, environmentally and ethically. This is indisputable, yet the obtuse denialism, of the patronised as well as the exploiters,is breathtaking.
Rudd is forced to toe the conservative line because that is what the benighted electorate demands. Political parties assemble under respective banners from left to right, but the contenders for office are inevitably dragged toward the hegemonic, ideological centre--en mass as foppishly tyrannical as the court of Louis the IVX.
The art of politics is in making the party's ideology and popular-will meet, and of rationalising the discrepancy--all pollies know this but none can say it. If the Nationalists had their way we'd live in a fascist state with no welfare except conscription. If Labor had its way we would be a socialist state--hopefully a benign one. But all major parties gravitate to the popular centre, as would the Greens if they got within cooee of office. Rudd dumped action on climate change because the ideological wind changed, not because he stopped believing in AGW; the backlash is the electorate making Rudd the scapegoat. The electorate, or ideology, is the villain.

Dear Squeers...

I honestly feel sorry for you.

"I am unashamedly for some kind of democratic-socialist system whereby a lid is put on anyone's personal wealth."

..and you might hold that view to your last meaningless breath... and expire into oblivion.. and it won't mean squat for the reality of the world or human nature.

I guess in a world view without God (?)...you need *something* to hold on to..and give you a reason to live... but you have chosen something that is futile.

You want to do by law and political structure..something that can only be done by grace and a transformation of heart.

The failure of socialism in the Soviet Union was not a failure of the system so much as a confirmation of our human condition.

But the system is also flawed because it does not recognize the true nature of man..

-Competitive
-Greedy

No "system" will change that. Only a new heart mind and will.

"You must be born again" said Jesus.

OH...I know...I know.."If only we can EDUCATE the masses..aaah...that will fix us" :) poor poor Squeers.

The Soviets tried to *educate* God out of the minds of people.. it failed.

which leads to one more human characteristic not mentioned above.

-Spiritual.

Then..there's more:

11 I have seen something else under the sun:
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.
(Ecclesiasties 9:11)