mememine69

"I don’t miss the smoggy 70’s and I am brave enough to face the future with healthy optimism, not ignorance and petty fear."

Which 'petty fear' are you speaking of? Global warming, climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, deforestation, ocean acidification, melting of the ice caps, world hunger, wealth disparity, political instability, the nuclear arms race, or any other of the myriad problems us lefties worry ourselves over so needlessly?

I'd be optimistic too if I seriously believed these 'petty fears' would soon be behind us in the same way as 'the smoggy 70's' are today. Unfortunately, I have a better grip on reality. It must go with being left of centre.

We are living longer than our parents but will our children.
A left leaning, socially and environmentally responsible government does not mean a return to the dark ages.
Maybe it is time to start a new thread.
If the Left existed what would they do different?

Possible Left Policies:
1: Eliminate all the tax loop-holes and exemptions used by the wealthy.
2: Dental care as part of Medicare
3: Focusing the Education dollar on the schools in NEED, irrespective of public or private status.
4: Pensions brought up to minimum wage percentile, perhaps 60+%?
5: Eliminate the private job-search centres.
6: Proper wages for the lower grades of the public service, eg: nurses, teachers etc.
7: Remove “corporate citizenship” from the law, making the decision-makers responsible for their decisions, and accountable.
8: Legalisation of marihuana, freeing up police, gaol, and legal resources for real crimes.
9: Eliminate the pouring of millions of dollars into the coffers of huge businesses, eg:oil , coal, etc through subsidies and concessions.
10: Begin preparing Australia for the turbulent times ahead, moving our centres away from the coast, building up our defence force, building alternate energy sources, preparing water and food sources on higher ground etc etc.

I am just putting these forward off the top of my head, not being definitive, and before anyone jumps down my throat with the usual cries about money, please try and remember, what we are facing is a potential world war, and the collapse of the world as we know it, hard times indeed. We need to prepare, no matter which way it all goes, what we now have will not suffice, or survive

1.Stop the legality of owning houses one does not personally live in, and businesses one does not personally work in, and farmland one does not personally work on.
2.End the dole and the pension. Pay a basic, standard hourly rate to the unemployed, for time spent in education or community service – the old, disabled or infirm, or carers would be paid -say- 20 hours minimum (negotiable, discuss).
http://thecomensality.com/avasay/?p=100
3.Create a seamless, modular education system; ie a medical practitioner could start with a simple first aid certificate, then ambulance, then nurse, etc., etc. Existing high schools could be opened to people of all ages for further and vocational education.
4.Stop encouraging people to have more babies, in an overcrowded world.
5.Apply tax incentives for businesses to share ownership and profits with those who create the profits, ie employees become shareholders.
6.Reinstate the award system, with a maximum 40 hour week and penalties for overtime. Too many industries -like food packing sheds- are insisting employees work 50 and 60 hours a week for a flat rate of pay, rather than employ more more staff.
7.Become a republic, with a popularly elected Head of State, maximum 2 year term, with a mandate to represent and defend minorities, against the tyranny of majority (parliamentary) rule; ie President, Chief Executive, whatever, becomes the ultimate Ombudsman.
http://www.thecomensality.com/declaration.html

Maximillion
You did not write anything for the international environment, for our brothers who are hungry, for the little children who have no food, no books, no water, no future, if we do not help them to stand on their feet we will have huge problems with them (I am with them!) and our wealth will waste as we will try to control them, to avoid their rebelions.
WE MUST START TO PREPARE FROM NOW FOR THE PROBLEMS OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE, AS HUNDRENDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL MIGRATE OF CAUSE THE RISE OF THE WATER SEA, THE LACK OF WATER AND OTHER RISKS.
We must crunch the nationalist and racists as they will be the BIGGEST block for the solusion of many international problems.
We need a strong democratic UN, we need a strong Itnernational Criminal Court, we need strong international bodies with power enouph to check and enforce the International law.
We must find ways to eliminate the Talibans, (muslim, Cristian or from other religious).
We must develope the cooperation between the nations to limite the RISKS as health risks, from nuclear weapons etc.
We must care the benefits of genetic engineering and new technologies to reach ALL HUMANS, in every corner of our planet.
WE MUST ....WE MUST....
I must go.. I am busy. AND DO NOT FORGET MIGRANT'S RIGHTS IN AUSTRALIA, DO NOT CLOSE YOUR EYES, DO NOT VICTIMIZE INNOCENT PEOPLE!
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

Dear BB,

If I had all the answers
(or thought that I did), I probably be in
politics. I'm not sure what the Left would
do - but I hope that the Left would look at
the mess that money and weapons and greed -
has made of the world we see on TV
every night, and they'd make sure that this world
would not be encouraged to come any closer to us.