*particularly us do-nothing layabouts in the Eastern States*

Ah Pericles, I of course never claimed that you do nothing. You
do in fact trade ever increasingly expensive houses amongst each
other and pay yourselves ever larger salaries, whilst you tolerate
the odd tourist. My point is that Sydney and Melbourne don't
actually do much that competes with the rest of the world, so your
lifestyle essentially mostly depends on screwing the efficient
parts of our economy, such as farming and mining.You have the
population to do it, so its all about tyranny by the majority

The Sydney Morning Herald reported a poll today that asked their readers whether they would be prepared to move to WA if they were out of work. 32.6% said yes, and another 30% said it would depend on the salary. The rest said no. Getting to WA is expensive, however, and I somehow doubt that many would in fact be willing to go without a firm job offer. Perhaps the mining companies should be recruiting in the East where most of the people are, once they have done the best they can to hire people who already live in WA. They might consider offering trial periods before people go back to uproot themselves and their families. As Belly has said, this sort of work is not for everyone.

While there no doubt are people who are work-shy to the bone, I just can't believe that there are overwhelming numbers of them. Look at the comments after the video I linked to earlier in the thread. The whole point of the video was to help employers to hire foreigners in preference to keen, well qualified US citizens and permanent residents, but there were still the usual comments about lazy Americans who don't want to take these jobs. It is curious that the laziness seems contagious and spreads to foreigners as well, just as soon as they acquire US citizenship papers or even permanent residence. I recall an Indian computer scientist who demonstrated this to a Congressional committee by calling up about a job in front of them, a job for which she was eminently well qualified. As soon as she told the recruiter that she was a naturalised US citizen, she was told that the job was only for H1B visa holders, even though the employers were supposedly only allowed to hire them if they couldn't get qualified US workers.

US workers used to line up for meat packing (abattoir) jobs. The workers were all unionised, and well trained and paid. Safety and hygiene standards were excellent. Now the work is done by illegal aliens under horrifically dangerous conditions.

http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc0603/article_541.shtml

hose with memories
might join the dots
clive was going to sue anna
anna goes with clive to china..and sign's a 65 billion mine

now blind freddy could see that had anna gone by herself
she could have signed..instead of clive
and we al could share any 'extra'

you know that extra..those who remove them worthless assets
get to be the richest man/woman[or top ten or whatever]

yet its not 'them' individually that is the richest
but things like clives shelf compasnies..or gina's [tax minimising/trust]

when we hads death duties
at least a percentage of tax came back
but now trusts own trusts..corperations own corperations

less than 20 run most of them
trhing is let clive sell clive
and govt serve the intrests of the people
if its not about sharing the common wealth..then go polute others assets

we need a cleanout
if your a global citisen..go live there
if your an aussie..pay tax..not play hide the parcel
of value from paying [iheld in private slush/trust..that the people OWN*.

at least transact transactions
sure those doing thousands of trades a day
wont be able to play the margins..but what good did they do really

made proffit..from speculating with your super
lost it...and now govt bails out the top[yet again]

bailout the poor
let the rich earn our extra cash..

yabby and I get alone ok, on some issues, he has that xenophobic wise men from the east thing.
I am aware it is based on the fact we are wiser.
And maybe it is fear of being called that that concerns eastern migrants.
Standing by my comments, Ludwig if we stopped filling the orders we would be very silly.
Japan, a Friend in ww1 changed as America cut of its supplies oil a Host of things.
What would become of our relations with China and India if we told them, an unlikely event,we would not sell them the amount they want.

<< …Ludwig, there is an essential contradiction in your assessment of the country's financial situation. >>

I don’t see any contradiction. In fact I’m sure just what you mean here, Pericles.

<< …the point about that "amazing mineral wealth" is that it has precisely no value whatsoever while it remains in the ground. It might as well not exist at all, if we don't dig it up. >>

Agreed. I have never said that we should just leave it in the ground.

But the rate at which we use it up is of great concern to me, as is the political paradigm and hence the real value of the wealth generated by mining, as I explained in my last post.

<< And because we do not have a lazy $200 billion or so lying around that is needed to perform this feat, we need to... <gasp> Borrow It >>

Why?? ?? ??

Why do we need to borrow money when we have such amazing mineral wealth, extremely large-scale mining and hence huge export income from it?

Even with big inefficiencies in spending, waste, overconsumption, huge profits for mining companies, huge pay packets and perks for politicians, too many public servants (according to some), etc, etc, we should still be getting well ahead with the national budget given the current rate of mining activity.

How can we still be borrowing money…..at the rate ~100 million$ day, I believe??

WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON HERE??

.

<< So long as there are flowers to pick, you'll be fine >>

Oh how right you are!! I could live on the smell of an oily rag. Um…...the smell a pwetty wittle fwower, I mean! Such is the simple life of a half-feral half-mad botanist! She-loves-me, she-loves-me-not, skippity-skippity-doo, tra-lalalalaaaaa!!

.

PS: Pericles did you try mixing Black Dog with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons? I did it with Spring. It is really is quite amazing [or maybe it was just that I did it late at night after consuming several glasses of Wolf Blass Eaglehawk Shiraz! { ;~# ].

( See the ‘Music’ thread: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=5030#139653 )

Ludwig mate a day will come, assure as the sun will rise shortly.
That lets you understand Tony Abbott has not kept in close contact with truth.
In fact he is far better as a sports man than politician.
We are in fact far from bankrupt, this year we will produce a few quid more than our costs.
Mate Australia is awakening, that day may be here now, Abbott is subjecting himself to ridicule, on his side.
He already is yesterdays man tainted by his lies .
He could,great sportsman that he is, run in my view a marathon each day .
My view is he should for about 100 days.
A huge wall of lies is about to fall on him.
Get your advice about this country's debt from the world bank not Abbott/Pyne.
And not please from a man who lost his intelligence after Turnbull, Hockey, more suited of late in a children's play ground as a portable round about.