Houellie,

Who?

Sorry, you must live in a particularly lukewarmly comfortable part of the country surrounded by fellows who never complain.

My take on our nation is that its mostly comprised of people continually belly-aching about one thing or another who never stop to realise how good they've got it

I'm not preaching to anybody - simply making an observation is all.

'if being angry makes us happy – then so be it.'

Oh I read feminist articles just for that very purpose. I even read the executive style section of the smh but that's more just to mock.

'I'm old enough to remember being taken on a two bus trip to a large city department store with my mother as she made another layby payment on the curtains that, when she had finished paying for them, were going to replace the donated old bedsheets that were serving as window coverings. As a special treat the kind staff took me back into the storage area to look at our curtains which in only six more months of payments would be able to go home with us.'

That's gold!

Never happened though. As Killarney would attest, the misogynist patriarch of the household would have spent that money on beer and hookers. Or maybe seat covers for the Kingswood.

My late mother never forgave Woolworths for rejecting her vouchers for a dinner set. She was silly enough to save them all up for a complete 6-setter (cups/saucers and dinner and bread plates), where the woolies powers that be assumed people would claim them as they came. She was within the claiming deadline but they just didn't have that much stock left.

See, told you I'm working class stock squeersy.

"Never happened though." True dinks, did so – the misogynist patriarch of the household, or Sir as we called him, being too busy working three jobs to provide for (then) four children under seven to know he wasn't supposed to be a teetotaller or own more than a BSA Bantam – or not have a sense of entitlement.

Still, I remember us all as being happy… It wasn't until we were teenagers that my parents learnt they were supposed to complain and whinge. To their credit, they learnt their lesson well and made up for lost time.

Middle age tempered them and by the time the last of my siblings moved into their own home my parents, putting on a brave face, pretended to be happy.

my understanding is that the party the vast majority of Australians want as Government was not at the talkfest in Brisbane. Most Australians are happy and that is why they despise a Government that lies, protects abusers of union money and turns border control into a joke. Very easy to bury ones head in the sand when surrounded by backslappers. The fact we don't want to become like Greece and Spain is why this wasteful Government is despised.

Me, I've taken to complaining big time of late. After my return the the CSA's clutches it seems like I've got plenty to complain about.

R0bert

As Jon J said

"One reason Australians are concerned and fearful is because they are at the mercy of a government now recognised to be hopelessly incompetent and actively dangerous to the economy and its most significant contributors."

To that I would add that the media is relentless in its pursual of political conflict and in fact manufactures it if it does not exist, simply to keep the show going. Also, the public watch as our completely incompetent Government strangles the golden mining goose in the name of Labor Party ideology while claiming to be great economic managers. Everyone can see it is the miners who are making the Govt look good and are perplexed as the Treasurer speaks of rich miners as if they are taking money away from the community. Maybe he doesn't know where the money is coming from.