Hi ROmany... err... am I detecting a little 'jealousy' there ?

You spent most of your post talking (whinging?) about my posts to Foxy...

But your last paragraph illustrates why your posts have not evoked similar warmth toward what you say..(from me) though, keep in mind.. in here, I respond to 'posts' not to people. I know as little about you as you do about me, so.. don't read toooo much into posts please.

Yes..if I smote someone about to molest you? We should define 'molest'.
In the real world, if a bloke is coming after you in whatever way, the law is my guide. "reasonable force". You don't shoot a bloke who has no weapon. If he has a gun.. you SHOOT him.. blow his brains all over the pavement... *BANG*... game over! Not that I have one. Now..believe it or not..'that' is 'reasonable force' under the law.
If he is just plain annoying you..and trying to grope you against your will.. then a few strategically placed roundhouse kicks to the thigh or putting him to sleep with a headlock will disable him enough for you to escape and the police to deal with him.

This is about BANKS for goodness sake.. and SPIN... how did it get onto 'you are a murderer if you protect me' ?

Romany.. I can sense the difference between genuine warmth and ideological bleeding heart rigidness. And it's the genuine warmth and patience in Foxy's posts that I respond to. (even though she calls me a useless bigot at times :)

We need the warmth of Foxy's to mellow the 'warrior' in we blokes. But trust me ... she(and you if ur female) would be nothing more than "those your right hand possesses" (with whom Muslim men can have sexual relations) if nobody stood in the way of such people. Life, tragically, involves blood and guts at times.

Now..can we get BACK to the topic at hand please.. BANKS..and SPIN.

Yabby, these are complex issues and tariffs are not perfect mechanisms but is the current system better?

Australian workers are not paid anymore because of globalisation, in fact under WorkChoices many real incomes have decreased. Wages will go up over time but not always in line with 'real' costs of living. Wages have risen in the boom states of QLD and WA but not in the rest of Australia where real incomes have dropped in proportion to living costs including the highest ever level of debt for household mortgages. The % of income now allocated to servicing mortgages is higher than ever before and add to that rising fuel and food prices into this equation.

Asian workers are still exploited compared to the profits made by those companies utilising that labour. Designer shoes made in Indonesia are no cheaper because of access to cheap labour and in fact have gone up so the consumer is also no better off. In the case of all products, designer or otherwise, do we want access to cheaper products to be based on the exploitation of OS labour? Some areas of Africa are being greatly affected by the import of food into areas where local and predominantly self subsistent farmers now have to compete with dumping of cheaper food from other areas too poor to negotiate a fairer deal for their produce. And the cycle continues.

Collusion and profiteering can also be a trait of OS countries exporting to Australia particularly if there is no domestic competition because all of our farmers have gone bust. This is exacerbated by agricultural or farm subsidies which only further aid our OS competitors who might see Australia as a dumping ground for excess produce. Not really a level playing field

I think while companies are beholden to shareholders first and consumers/growers second we won't ever get away from collusion and excess profiteering. Banks are the perfect example.

I am no expert and do grapple with some of these issues. The more I read and listen to other people on issues of economy, the more questions are raised.

Ok Pelican, so explain to me how workers would be better off, paying three
times as much for many consumer goods? What do you think your computer
and printer would cost for instance, if they were made in Australia?

What we can show is that on average, workers real wages are higher then
ever before. I saw a price list of goods twenty years ago, compared to today
and the progress has been amazing. We of course have flawed memories,
which is the real problem.

Designer goods are expensive for a good reason, companies know that
there are plenty of consumers who are dummies :) People will pay
12000$ for a Rolex watch, 5000$ for a Hermes handbag or even
quite a bit extra for a pair of Nikes, for prestige value. If they were
all 20$ at Woolies, there would be no “designer” value, kids would
not aspire to own a pair of Nikes. So you are paying for all the
advertising etc.

Yes, our banks charge heaps, but as Pericles pointed out, most of that
profit goes back into our Super Funds. Workers have over 1 trillion$
in super, enough to buy the whole ASX, so are in fact the owners of
most large Australian listed companies, including our banks.

Our banks are little darlings, compared to US investment banks.
Your local shire might well have been ripped off by them, its going
to be a messy clean up.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Rubbish-collection-BQRJJ?OpenDocument

Yes, dumped subsidised US and EU agricultural products have caused
all sorts of problems, I agree. That is exactly one of the reasons why
we have a commodity price problem right now. But that does not
mean that the principles of globalisation are a bad thing, just that
the system is abused by those countries and should be challenged in
international courts or whatever.

The fact remains that consumers are the largest beneficiaries of
globalisation and that includes all of us.

"SHOOT him.. blow his brains all over the pavement... *BANG*... game over!" (Quote: BOZO)

This from a former missionary; a so-called Christian!!

You make reference to getting back to the topic...

You made reference to 'pig dog banks'/.....'moron dividing line'.

THIS kind of terminology from a 'man of God'.

You are utterly and completely FULL of hatred for anything or anyone who does not follow your perverse and disgusting logic.

______________________________

Well folks?....if you do ignore this person, AND STICK TO IT;- count me in.

BD,

You are a very, very bent unit.

Ginx,

Count me in,too. Like an idiot I read his last post to me and have been. It gave me a horrible moment of clarification into this person's mind which has disturbed me ever since.

GINX and ROMANY
Ignore 'me' all you like...but you cannot ignore truth.

You picked the last part of my paragraph.. and neglected (probably maliciously) the first part which gave the CONNNNNNtext.

It was.

<<In the real world, if a bloke is coming after you in whatever way, the law is my guide. "reasonable force". You don't shoot a bloke who has no weapon. If he has a gun......>>

I simply gave you what the POLICE have to do on a regular basis.

Yet you criticize this? You have just demonstrated the true hate....the true 'bent'ness..the creepyness which exists between the ears of people who will ignore balance and context simply to score a shallow and baseless 'anti BD point'......

So...should I assume from your remarks that you seditiously disagree with our laws?

by the way..hiding from God behind your imagined 'unholy one' (me) is pure hypocrisy.. its worse.. you brand someone a hypocrite based on illusory and malicious misrepresentation of the facts..then hide behind it ? :) and you call me 'bent' ?