Peter,

Regarding your last sentence on a 50 pound per day wage in 1842 - what was that you were saying about questions posed in "bad faith"?

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12693#219888
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12693#219893
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12693#219912
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12693#219908

Peter Hume & Antiseptic, have either of you guys read these books?

http://www.downloadweb.org/search.php?acode=2d6cfcc00b464c7ee4408add5d864738&q=The%2520naked%2520communist "the naked communist" in which the author destroys all of the principles of communazi, loony left, dictatorship politics.

http://www.torrents.net/torrent/324389/The-Naked-Capitalist-ocr'd-pdf/ & this one "the naked capitalist" in which it is shown that the filthy stinking, super rich, steal from low, middle & even high income earners to give to the 1% of the population richest on earth or increase the wealth gap, by promoting communazism. As Comrades Whitlam, Hawke, Keating, Krudd & Juliar Dillhard have been doing, introducing policies to weaken small, medium business, farmers & co-ops in favour of big business.

No, I haven't read those books FS. I reckon I can work out a fair bit of what's in them though.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=12693#219943

Antiseptic, i can thoroughly recomend them to you when you have time to read them.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/at-last-a-thorough-probe-into-what-drives-the-greens-machine/story-fn59niix-1226095160826

i can thoroughly recomend this one to you as well.

Poirot
So you don't answer the question, accuse me of bad faith, and give no reason why.

Certainly if evasion and sniping were an economic alternative, you'd have a veritable wonderland.

Formersnag
That article just says it all, doesn't it? It actually sounds like a description so many socialists on OLO.

"The findings of these experts lead one to understand that the Greens have an uncontrollable urge to spend and tax, almost everywhere and for everything; a mania for control through legislation and regulation of institutions and individuals; a disturbing and unwarranted confidence in central planning and belief that government knows best; an antagonism to initiatives by the private sector or individuals; and, at best, a systematic and naive understanding, historically and practically, of how the world works.

"In these policy formulations there appears to be a profound lack of appreciation or understanding of why our society is the way it is. All the fruits of Australia's prosperity, with its brilliant scientists, economists, farmers, technicians, talented workers and thinkers, our leaders, our institutions, our democracy and our constitution, count for nought. The Greens want to change everything and, like spoilt children, destroy what they don't understand.

"The Greens' policies would have catastrophic unintended consequences for this country. They would threaten its prosperity, diminish individual human rights, decrease its tolerance and harmony, and make us less secure. Worse, and this is the biggest irony, the Greens' policies would damage our environment.

"The tragedy is that it is precisely the "good intentions" of the Greens that draws so many people to them and to vote for them. The result, if this group with its ill-thought-out policies ever gets its way, will be a disastrous return to a new primitivisation."

It's like Poirot, Squeers, and david f. They think because they want to do good, therefore their policies are by definition good.

Thanks for that link formersnag. It sounds pretty much like the view I'd formed already. They're Utopians, but with no idea that the Utopia they're asking for is in fact a dystopian nightmare.

Another example of pathological altruism, perhaps combined with a more than healthy sense of self-entitlement. Not a nice mix.