Mikk
It's very obvious from your post to me that we must move in very different circles, and that your social life is limited to only where all the people to whom you refer are really suffering. I, on the other hand have seen and heard for myself from the many young people I meet, that the picture I painted for you is as true as the fact that some do experience hardship, which I don't deny. Maybe it's just in my locality that I can't help noticing so many of them also sport expensive tattoos.

Our local paper reported last week that drug taking in this area[expensive habit] has rocketed by 50% among young people, along with an alarming increase in STD's since the previous report 2 years ago. Many of today's youth are our lost generation - self gratification is their only goal. Thank goodness we have some who have been taught if they want something, the best way to achieve this is to work.

May I take this opportunity to suggest that you present your opinions without so many juvenile insulting comments to people who post on this forum. Your vituperative comments are just plain rude name calling. Please take note - empty vessels make the most noise, and produce nothing of worth except that. Points can be made just as well if they are presented in a civil manner, rather than thuggish confrontation, which is such an unbecoming method to use on a forum, even if it helps you release your very obvious frustrations.
If you want dialogue and interaction with forum members, I think you will find courtesy a much better way to achieve this.

Dear Saltpetre,

<<We need more jobs, and we need more people fit to take up those jobs.>>

Is it a case of 'need' or a case of 'want'?

Whence this strange assumption as if human life is not worthwhile unless one engages in a formal and regular practice of exchanging labour for money?

While we probably cannot afford to do completely away with this painful practice in this particularly dark day and age, would it be wrong for at least some of us to be liberated from the misery of this degrading cycle? Should we out of jealousy deny this from those who are fortunate enough to escape it?

worldwatcher
The fact that all unemployed people receive the same payment from the government irrespective of where they live would lead one to think that perhaps it is the children of the better off who are the real bludgers. You obviously live in a relatively prosperous area and the fact that young people there can afford drugs, tatts etc only means they are getting money from somewhere else as well as the dole.
Maybe they live and eat at home rentfree. Freeloading off their parents. Maybe there are plenty of corrupt employers in your area who like to pay cash wages. Maybe they deal drugs to the well off workers round your way.
How this means that all the people that live in already suffering areas need to suffer even more than they already do I do not understand.

As for presenting my opinions more civilly. Did you say that to all those here who spewed hate and vilification at Julia Gillard? I am just reflecting the tone of this place for the last few years.
I am also righteously pissed off at this government and its LIES, hatred, vicious attacks and its utter utter hypocrisy.

Never forget
Never forgive

Mikk

Butcher...the term dole bludger emerged as they stripped manufacturing and value adding from us under the Lima Agreement.

The press were quick to scapegoat the masses...but let us speak facts not catch cry’s and see how much we do bludge Butch.

Here are the current stats on global “social cash expenditure” compared to GDP.

Germany....15%
U.S.A....10%
Japan....12%
France...18%
Estonia....14%
UK....12%
Poland....14%
Italy....18%
AUSTRALIA....8%

In countries with electricity only Chile, Korea, and Mexico give less to their poorest plebs than our Labor and Liberal elites do.

Go on chase your dole bludgers....as they say, if you want to beat the dog, you can always find a stick..................

rehctub,

Actually, while not proposing it, your remark about a 60% drop in wages would make us competitive again on the world market. Compared to 3 giant economies - China, India, and even the U.S. Our high wages are destroying being able to compete in manufacturing or export of many things outside of the mining sector.
We destroy ourselves by continually demanding higher wages. The U.S. minimum wage is $7.50 an hour - much higher than even China and India, which goes a long way to explaining why we import so much from these countries, and why so many long established Aussie companies have closed.
The greed has not been limited to government. We all have to share the blame and consequences of our greed.
Those on the dole also have to face the reality that if they want to have a certain lifestyle they may have to consider work they may now consider to be beneath them, that when things are bad enough one must lower expectations.
Are trolley boys in your area all Indians? They are where I live. Not exactly a job offering much advancement, but it's putting food on their tables and a roof over their heads, and they are happy to have the work that young Aussies used to do not so many years ago.
Same goes for our bus and taxi drivers and hospital porters here in the West. Can anyone explain how they are able to so easily find work when Aussies obviously can't?
BTW, the Indian trolley boys at our local mall never stop corralling the car park trolleys, and I've noticed they are very helpful and polite to the older patrons if they see they can lend them a hand to put groceries in the cars for them.

worldwatcher, I was reading an article the other day about the failure of the Sarbucks coffee chain here in Oz. No doubt Being a US based company, they didnt factor in our wage structure for the low skilled.

As for where we are today, is old news in the business world, as when in business what has happened means nothing, because it's all about what's going to happen that matters. That's why many people get confused if a large company, after having a good year, sheds staff. It's all about the future.

Our problem is that our manufacturing future, with the losses of Holden, Ford and Toyota, not to mention all their support industries, means this sector is headed for a train wreck, of proportions most of us here today have only ever read about in history books.

We are in for a hiding to nothing.

We should be acting now, and an immediate suspension of all 457's and zero immigration would be wise places to start as we are going to need every job for our own, and some I fear.