US-centric.

God save us from fools.

As we with feet planted firmly on solid ground realise, the University towers of powder puff dandies are in real life, irrelevant!

Why even contemplate or consider the credibility or not of their total B/S.

This parading section of clown alley, are totally ignorant of the historic need of inequality in society.

For example, without the poor downtrodden black North African gangs roaming the streets of Melbourne, bashing and plundering the weak and unprotected members of Melbourne society, what need would there be for a police force?

Dan

We have a parasitic economic system, where the privileged elite/born to rule, predate on all those at the lower end of the social-economic scale. And almost to a generic man argue that there needs to be a level of unmet need and poverty in order to suppress wages! Even as the energy bill often exceeds the wages bill!

And because in Oz energy is either foreign-owned or foreign-controlled? By tax-avoiding, price gouging, profit repatriating foreign investors? Whose aim with, the assistance of a control freak parliament, is to charge what the market will bear?

The US is a different kettle of fish. They have an economic model that is a dog eat dog extreme capitalism that is similarly parasitic?

And a large cohort of illegal migrant workers who can be paid slave labour wages, to perform backbreaking work and other mostly menial work? And because those who profit from this paradigm are either influential or in positions of power, there's little appetite for change?

If we would change any of this, we need to remove the corporate cowboys from all positions of power! These are the bully boy psychos who always claim the praise and kudos when their underlings win success and blame shift like it was going out of fashion whenever there's a balls-up!

And just a first step towards the adoption of cooperative capitalism/ equity and fairness1 Which is eminently doable under that model but never ever under current extreme capitalism, nor communism, which requires slaves to survive economically!

Quote inasmuch as ye do unto the least among thee, ye also do unto me. unquote.

The world of today is chock-full of Sunday morning Christians, who beat their chests and read selected passages from books that they believe supports the worship of mannon, and mostly where the inequity begins and is justified? TBC.
Alan B.

There's no dispute about the reality of poverty and unmet need! It exists because it is part of the economic paradigm! And will worsen as long as we allow the inmate to remain in control of the asylum! Were this not as obvious as the nose on your face we would have done things very differently!

The first being the widespread adoption of cooperative capitalism as opposed to dismantling as much of it as we could!

Then we need a single tax system for all that is based on genuine equity and fairness and removes any and all opportunities for minimisation or avoidance!

That system is a 15% flat tax set above a generous tax-free threshold, that none who earn income here can avoid!

And given that is the model all tax compliance spending which averages 7%, can be returned to the bottom line!

Then we can adopt MSR nuclear energy and energy prices as low as a cent PKWH! Or lower, but only where sanity finally prevails!

Similarly, all social amenity (water, gas etc) needs to be decoupled from this or that private operator, given it is treated as cash cows that have no limits placed on the appetite for unearnt profit!

Then we do need to accept and adopt cooperative capitalism that produces only winners and win-win outcomes all round and superior profits for the money men than they could ever have previously dreamed of, before they and the corporate cowboys, insanely shot the economy in the economic foot! Think, we were once the third-largest economy in the world and a debt-free creditor one at that!

It's the economy, stupid!
Alan B.

Hi Alan B, Australia is the most racist nation on the planet.

The Marxist Monoversity educated, ruling, leftist elites discriminate against ALL real Australians regardless of whether their ancestry is Aboriginal, English, Irish, Scottish, Torres Strait Islander or Welsh.

They have sold their souls to the CCP Chinese Communist Party because these "useful idiots" actually think Communism is a good idea & will be wonderful after Communist China has colonised Australia.

UCSR here we come, double + good.

China is rapidly becoming a real competitor as an economic and military superpower. With worldwide domination ambitions? But that's just the CCP/the Chairman, not the whole of China! The bulk of who would just live in comfortable peaceful cohabitation! Given they will be sacrificial pawns in any power play that results in hostile opposition by also nuclear armed naysaying opponents. China's strategy is simply to buy what they can with the assistance of Benedict Arnold, quislings and those driven by personal greed coupled to calloused indifference! With the latter including significant elected officialdom? That said, I don't believe there will ever be one worldwide power, but at least two or two blocks? Given the surety of MAD.

The key to peace in our time is energy all can afford and where we need to head! And anyway,the best economic and environmental outcome, in any event!

I watched in amazement at the sheer naivety of the usual rent-a-crowd, protesting against us being armed with modern weaponry!

The same fools would have been out there protesting war even as the Germans and ww11 rolled over Europe!?

Protests never have ever stopped power-hungry dictators who will just rub their filthy blood-soaked hands with glee at the sight of these and similar protests!

Better to die on your feet fighting for your freedom than down on your knees, begging for it! When Germany attacked Poland and we were thrust into a war few wanted, our troops exercised with broom handles1 SUCH WAS THE STATE OF UNPREPAREDNESS!

That very unpreparedness, led to the unnecessary slaughter of millions!

Better to talk softly, but carry a big stick! And given a big enough stick? The very real probability of never having to use it!
Alan B.

No, John and Eric. Western people do not need to "strike a balance" between those advocating competition and those demanding a free kick. Western free market economics is based upon competition where the best candidate is supposed to win. If we want to go the way of left wing socialism and pretend that all races are equal, then those advocating racial equality had better come up with an explanation as to why dysfunctional minorities are always dysfunctional and most of them inhabit the lowest classes of society.

Of course, the socialists have done just that by claiming that the very clear differences in social outcomes displayed between races is because the rotten white people have manipulated the system to the disadvantage of the dysfunctional minorities. Which is complete and utter malarkey.

The sad fact is that mother nature is no egalitarian. People, and groups of people, are born with differing levels of intelligence, different personalities, different conceptions of beauty, and different athletic abilities. And while some of these qualities can be improved upon by culture, in the main, people are born that way. No amount of education can make a basically low intelligence person into a Mensa. Or Magda Szubanski into a supermodel.

Therefore, different groups of people, within races between classes, will have different social outcomes. And no amount of social engineering is going to change that. All it will do is to create distortions in efficiency as people are chosen on the basis of their minority status instead of proven ability. And it will create resentment from the smarter elements in society (the productive people our society depends upon) who know that they are being shafted by an unfair system set up to buy dysfunctional minority votes. And that they are being discriminated against solely upon the basis of their race by people claiming that they are anti racist.

Hi LEGO,

You are far too naive & idealistic. It's worse than that.

Before 1972 ALL Australian people were doing better, because our education system actually educated or improved young Australians from ALL walks of life.

The ruling, leftist elites who hate, loathe & despise competition have been dumbing down the proletariat for decades.

The most sensible, intelligent people on Australian soil have not been breeding. EVERY year Australia has been getting dumb & dumber. The entire planet is going that way.

The Arts & Entertainment industry; Advertising & Public Relations industry; Fashion industry; Media industry & Education industry have successfully boganised Australia.

Every generation under the age of about 65 has been getting progressively worse than the year before.

Reversing this trend will be a massive task, IF we begin immediately.

It will take decades to repair, recover, rehabilitate or de-program these damaged brains.

I am hardly naive and idealistic, imacentristmoderate, if I agree with nearly everything you have written. I would just point out that you seem to have gone off on a tangent from what this topic was originally about.

Eric and John submitted both sides of the argument about the thorny issue for the reason for the differing outcomes for differing races in western society. The leftist view, is that they take for granted that all races are equal. Therefore, if inequality exists within western society, it is because of white privilege. And this can only be corrected by giving minority groups more rights and privileges than whites. It is an argument meant to appeal to those dysfunctional groups of low intelligence who resent the fact that they are not smart enough to compete with the brainer races, and who are looking for special privileges to be "more equal."

The liberal right wing view is that equality is supposed to mean exactly that. That everybody in society should be treated equally in regards to education and to examinations. And promotions should be based upon results and merit, regardless of race.

Instead of taking one position or the other, both Eric and John squibbed out, and they tried and failed to reconcile two diametrically opposed arguments.

The dumbing down of the Australian curriculum by the long haired men and short haired women in our education departments is deliberate. With it blindingly obvious that no matter what the ethnic makeup of any particular classroom is, that the students of some races will usually excel, while students from other races will usually fail academically and be a pain in the ass when it comes to unacceptable behaviour. Since leftist social theory considers that racial equality is as immutable as the law of gravity, this outcome is an unwelcome reminder that their ideology could do with a bit of work. But they will never accept that races could be different. They would rather dumb every smart kid down than admit that the dysfunctional minorities they champion are a bit short in the brains department

Yes as the feminists took over the education they quickly dumbed down the math & physics courses so the girls could compete. Then the lefties got into the act & removed most of the hard stuff. We get dumbies coming out of high schools today.

40 years ago a kid coming out of year 10, [Queensland] with math 1 & 2 passes could easily handle the math required in an electrical apprenticeship. Today kids coming out of year 12 with math A & B, [the same stuff theoretically] are not capable of doing the same apprenticeship.

A high school math teacher friend of ours was unhappy in the school system, & decided to change to running remedial math courses for many doing things like Environmental Sciences courses at university. Many of these kids had taken the easy route of "business" math at high school, & had no chance of handling even the simple stuff in Environmental Sciences.

He then found many with good passes in math A B & C could not handle what was expected in science & engineering courses. More work for his remedial courses.

Then the TAFE heard about him. He is now running courses for 3 TAFE, who found even kids doing building courses needed better math than high school had given them.

He tells us that most kids even with VHA, [very high achiever], passes in math could not make change for a bus ticket without a calculator to work it out.

We have universities full of girls who could not have passed the selection criteria 15 years ago, & bachelor degrees not worth the paper they are printed on. If we don't get back to merit based selection in all things, god help us.

Hi LEGO,

Didn't really think you were too naive & idealistic...

But i wonder whether we will be able to turn the "Good Ship Australia" away from the iceberg it is heading towards at the moment, or whether it is already too late.

If i could afford to, i would be moving to Switzerland or America who have not yet, slid down the slippery slope as far, or as fast as Australia has.

Also don't think i was really off on a tangent either. The stupification or boganisation of Australia is the primary cause of ALL our inequality.

When i was in primary school ONLY one child out of 120 to 150 children in each year for 7 years ever failed & was held back to repeat one year. NOBODY ever got less than a C average. The overwhelming majority of children were B or A students.

It was common for poor children to do well at QLD state primary schools & get scholarships to GPS High schools & tertiary education.

NOT anymore.

When I was at school imacentristmoderate, country NSW late 50s, our 350 pupil high school had only 12 kids in 5Th year. There was no point going past 3Rd year, intermediate certificate, as it provided everything most needed. Only those planning on university or teachers college went higher.

Of those 12 only one stayed in town, going into the family business. Of the rest, 3 of us got private company scholarships to university, 2 got teacher scholarships to university, 2 were family funded to university, & the rest went to teachers college.

It is rather telling that 40% of the kids with the highest scholastic ability became teachers. Perhaps this alone gave us much better teachers than we get today.

So true Hasbeen, My maternal grandmother (rural QLD) had 4 daughters.

3 of them went into nursing apprenticeships, 2 serving as nurses in WW2.

The 4th did a dip ed at teachers college combined with a maths degree at UQ, with the intention of becoming a high school maths teacher. But WW2 intervened & she became a code breaker, rocket scientist, radar scientist & climate scientist.

Today's young Australians don't even come close to the achievements of earlier generations like your's.

Are you familiar with the book...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51306518-how-not-to-become-a-millennial

well worth reading.