Mollydukes,wages paid to beauocrats are enforced contributions about which none of us have a say.Michael Coster has admitted to having 20% too many public servants in NSW and still this Govt blames everyone else for their shortcomings.The reality of their excesses is probability 30 or 40% increase in the PS and still left wing fools think that this is the norm?The depth of tax payers generosity should not extend to the excesses of this stupidity!We are not talking about a paultry $3 billion that Bob Carr feels short changed by.This state Govt spends $40 billion p.a.
We are talking about billions of dollars wasted each year.If individuals want to waste their money on luxuries,it is none of your business or mine.You evil social engineers are too busy feathering and expanding your own little empires.

Ringtail and Molly
I also listened to that 'happiness' report :) most interesting yes ?
It seems people who believe in God are the happiest.
Hmmm....
cheers

Bllody hell Arjay I am not mediocre. I'm much better than you but I don't need to earn more money than you to prove it and I don't judge people by their pay-packets as to how worthy they are either. That would mean that Kerry Packer (such a self-reliant man) is one of the 'best' Australians. Get a life!

David, research does show that Christians are happier than other people but the research doesn't discriminate between the sort of Christian like you are (who denies homosexuals a right to be themselves etc) and the sort of Christians who do what they 'think' Jesus would have done. I am not aware of any research that attempts to show that Catholics are happier than Lutherans for example.

Furthermore, it is not only Christians who are happier than the hoi polloi, it is all people who have something to believe in, apart from the mighty dollar, and that includes Muslims (if one accounts for the type of society) and people like me!

I have said before I am pro-christian, just not pro-your type of Christianity. I know that there is much wisdom in the good book.

Unfortunately, it seems to me, you choose to focus on the bits that, to me, are the remnants of an old dysfunctional patriarchiacal society, and not God's word at all.

Pleased to hear that you found the Background Briefing article interesting.

Furthermore, Arjay self-reliance doesn’t scare me but the results of total self-reliance do. Have you ever read any Dickens? Victorian England was a totally self-reliant society.

The U S is a more self-reliant society. Do you think US society is better than ours?

One big problem I have with more self-reliance is that it will relegate the children of those who aren’t able to rely on themselves, to mediocrity or worse.

Children are not born knowing how to play the game of life. That is why they have parents, to teach them lots of things they need to know about how to work and save and think about tomorrow and the next rainy day.

If the parents don’t know these things then how do they teach their children?

So total self-reliance is fine if we are all adult and all healthy but unfortunately God didn’t see fit to do it that way and a decent society, needs to make some adjustments for this. Self-reliant societies do not provide opportunities for children to learn the skills that they need to participate in the good life, so they perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

Arjay – “Col Rouge, you should consider writing a book;” Thanks for the suggestion Arjay – maybe I will.

Mollydukes Let us get it clear, “Total Self Reliance” is not viable.

Obviously simple economic issues such as “division of labour”, “economies of scale” and “specialisation” command that “Total self reliance” will not succeed and perspectives which embrace FTA’s compound to make self-reliance even less attainable.

However we are not talking of “self reliance” in the context of a national economy or a trade agreement, we are talking about the relationship between a government and the people who it is intended to serve.

In this context “self reliance” distinguishes the authority of the state to that of servant and not master of the populous. It is the prerogative of every individual to become as complete and productive and valued an individual as they can. The ones who do not are the ones who look for a featherbed from the state the best the state can offer is a thin straw mattress. Only those who rely on their own efforts can afford featherbeds and providing thin straw mattresses for all is the best equitable solution the state can offer. Which is why presuming any reliance on the state as an alternative to developing self reliance “sucks”.