Is Aus all bad, even for you?
plantagenet,
where in Australia are you ? Where I am (Nth Qld) things are ok apart from the odd weirdos with tattoos & rivets & studs, smoking dope & taking drugs etc. & labor voting Public Servants & history inventing locals.

Hi indi

All is good for me as I've organised myself and decided a partner is bad for me. I tick all the following boxes and made some sacrifices to avoid conventional instant gratification (especially never gambling, never drinking at expensive bars/pubs or blowing money at expensive restaurants, had no international trips in 10 years). Hence

- the major benefit is no longer paying a mortgage or car loan
- I call in scams to the authorities
- my finances are checked by several security agencies and a tax accountant
- didn't make the mistake of living in sky high priced, traffic jammed, Syd or Mel,
- not running, insuring, maintaining several cars or motorbikes, no ride-on mower or quad
- no boats, be they windjammers or big motors
- don't gamble (not even brain-in-limbo pokies, or horsies)
- no kids at home (all grown up) though give them some money bdays and Xmas
- no spouse/dependent to blow your savings,
- no women to spend your money to buy that touching $10K-$20K ring for herself (like some unfortunate blokes have to tolerate)

I'm in Australia.
_________________

Hi Hassy

Despite how you say Aus is worse off than some illusory island paradises, I understand you're doing pretty good.

Plantagenet...your presenting yourself lately as out of character, with an exaggerated vociferous presence: this I’ve noticed, since the sad demise of our OLO pseudonym , AlanB.

Is this simply a case of change partners and dance? Or is my gut feeling wrong.
While your in the presence of the holy father and inside the confessional, should you just fess-up and say ten Hail Mary’s, or is my guess a long pass in flight with a Hail Mary?

Dan

Yes plantagenet, I'm doing OK. If you don't smoke, drink or gamble it costs little to live, after you have made your way. I haven't borrowed anything in 35 years, & after 10 years in the tourist industry, where I was expected to eat with the guests every night, I never want to enter a restaurant ever again. The worst punishment I can imagine, apart from returning to the Sydney of today, would be to have to spend a week on a cruise ship.

I bought my first house a small 4 room workers cottage before I was 21, so it was cash for the total 2300 pounds in what was an outer Sydney suburb. The next was 5000. It pays to start young. My real estate has covered my security, & frugal living has paid for my racing cars, my yacht, my horses, & now my sports cars. My home hobby farm would now sell for, [I almost said it was worth], about 7 or 8 times what I paid for it 30 years ago, so the kids will do OK too.

I have my ex navy son living in my granny flat, but costing nothing, so no problem. He is even useful on occasions. Anyone who can keep a couple of different clapped out old navy ships going for years can patch up almost anything.

There are still plenty of those islands, both atolls & volcanic high islands, & the ones I like have no formal transport connection. Many no communication if the white planter has gone. I could take you to a hundred north of PNG & the Solomons. Remember a 10 mile by 5 mile island is 15 Sq Miles, almost 10,000 acres, plenty of room for a few subsistence villages, & 30 miles of coastline means a longish walk between them.

They may be a bit lacking in stimulus even for us oldies, but for those who know little else, they leave the rat race for dead

Wham Bam Thankyou Dan

But no.

What a strange way to divide people up:

"Tough-minded people like 'facts', and they are materialistic and pessimistic"

- Fair enough, then I am not "tough".

"The tender-minded rely on principles, and they are idealistic, dogmatic and optimistic. They are also likely to be religious"

- Fine, so this categorises my personality as "tender".

So far so good, but then I got confused:

"The tender-minded agonise... 'Why can't we sort out our problems with China?'"

Get along with the devil? No way, when evil presents itself, only war will do!

"The tough-minded see self-reliance as crucial in the shaping of one's life"

Indeed, so do I.

"The tender-minded... are always looking to 'government' to sort things out."

Government? No way - I trust God and God alone, government is part of the problem.

- So am I a toughie then?

"There is not much difference in practice between Labor and Coalition governments in this area."

Yes, so I despise them both [for their cruel treatment of refugees].

"no country has an open-border immigration system."

Immigration is not a "system" but the natural movement of living-beings, humans included, across the planet. That "system" is just an artificial blockage of natural freedoms.

"Shouldn't we be starting with birth control"

We already HAVE birth control, whereby people are economically encouraged to bring children into this crowded planet. I definitely oppose control where others are told what to do or not to do, yet people should know that if they bring children then they would need to cover all the associated costs themselves.

The answer to my confusion can perhaps be found in the first paragraph that mentions "the society we are part of":

Of course we aren't and one wrong assumption can lead to every possible ridiculous notion! We (well I anyway) have been around long before society existed and shall remain around long after it is gone, so how could we be "part of" that? This may well be the pea which makes us sick under all the mattresses - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ0EKqAECPs