Just a cotton-pickin' minute.

"So, what is driving the discontent in Australia?"

Before you pose such a question, Mr Ness, you are supposed to identify that there is, in fact, discontent in Australia. I noticed that you had avoided this necessary step, both in the absolute - e.g., "90% of Australians are dicontented", and in the relative - "survey says, more Australians are discontented than ever before".

As a result, you are talking to the wall, when you ask:

"Is it this decline in religion that is correlated with a feeling of malaise, despair and in some sectors, anger?"

This is journalism at its lowest ebb. Not only are you manufacturing an issue using emotive words and expressions, and dragging in religion, the media, class warfare, demographics and "energy" along the way.

But also, you are saying nothing of value or interest while doing so. Even your proposed "solution" is trivial, teenage stuff:

"...the economic system must be based on and measured by the use of energy and the production of entropy as an empirical quantification of which system should be adopted."

Yeah, right.

I challenge you to explain that in words that actually mean something, rather than construct a sentence that performs as an active inhibitor to meaningful communication.

Pshaw.

This article sums up the present situation very well.

The comment by DavidL shows that he doesn't understand enough about resources, chemistry, metallurgy or economics.

Whilever intelligent animals exist they will need fossil carbon to produce metals and chemicals. At present rates of consumption coal and other fossil fuels and feedstocks will be exhausted within a four or five generations.

Wind or solar power isn't the answer. Without carbon 150 years or so from now, the then citizens will not be able to produce the reinforced concrete and the metals necessary for the production of replacement equipment.

With conservation of fossil carbon and use of thorium and fast breeder uranium reactors, fuel for electricity would be available for the next 50,000 years at least.

The tax system needs rectification. No ones brain effort is worth the present multiples enjoyed by those who use their brains, or monkey cunning, compared to those who contribute by physical effort.

The author writes with such authority

'The world is such a wonderful place because we have had over 3 billion years of the most primitive life forms taking energy from the sun and changing the atmosphere into a stable, oxygen rich one with very effective feedback mechanisms that keep the system stable.'

And the next chapter of the fairy tale is? To think that people are so dumbed down to accept such ardent statements as fact without questions shows how much we have devolved in our thinking. Only those totally blinded by evolution dogma fail to see the Great Designer of this planet.

The reason so many are miserable and addidcted to anti depressants is simply because the god deniers have had their dogmas implemented into society. It has led to depression, family breakdown, child abuse and drug addiction.

Someone who describes the past so inaccurately as the author has little chance of offering answers for the future.

Misery? What misery??

I am happy, and so are most people I know. Thanks be to God!

But if you feel gloomy, John, better stay out of the following which can never give you happiness: The media; economics; and politics.

And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, get a life and don't depress us with your new paradigms.

---

One avenue which you may like to try is the joy of numbers - you'll also be surprised how many new friends you can find in an arithmetic refreshment course:

95 - 11*3 = 62
1/3 is 33.333%

So 62% is 86% more, nearly double, what you worked out. Better luck next time, math is fascinating, way beyond the social studies that give you depression - go out and enjoy!

Daffy, given the nature of the site posts such as that go up and if drawn to the attention of the moderator are removed if found to be in breach of the rules. It's not a site where comments are reviewed before becoming visible nor is the editoral staffing overly large.

Simplest thing to do is to use the X under a post which you believe breaches the rules to recommend it for deletion.

On topic I'm not miserable. I am fed up with governments plundering my pay packet to hand out my income to others who choose not to work for it for causes which I may or may not agree with. Happy to pay taxes to keep the basics going but don't believe that any government should be able to give my income to others in the way that recent governments have become very fond of doing.

I can still be happy and enjoy life along the way. I can still accept that I live in a great country, that life is good and be able to think that we could do even better. I can love my life and the country I live in without needing to accept that the actions of the government or others are well founded or reasonable.

R0bert

Hi, I've removed the comment by DavidL. Robert's basically said it all for me. If I don't know about a comment I can't deal with it. I do not have time to read threads all day, so they are dealt with when I find out about them. Thanks to the person who alerted me to this one by clicking on the red cross in the bottom left-hand corner of the comment.

Graham Young
Moderator