Dear Paul,

Perhaps this slip-of-tongue of yours says it all:

<<However I believe their lifestyle is better severed by catering to basic needs first, education, health, improved housing etc>>

I think that you probably intended to write "served", but it came out as "severed".

It's a slippery-slope and once you get used to comfort-appliances it's very hard to fight the addiction, perhaps too late.

If one considers the full price of a washing-machine, not only the obvious direct costs, if one considers how much of their life is spent in servicing those gadgets, how they could have used that time instead to be in touch with themselves, their family, their friends, nature and the divine, then one would wish they thought about it twice before, but by then it's very hard to give up. The fact is that the Western civilised person, despite all machines that wash their clothes etc., has far less time on their hands than those "primitives". Most of us are forcibly awakened by alarm-clocks while still tired and must drag ourselves out of bed in order to drive to some dreary workplace that we don't like so that we can finance all those gadgets.

If you have AIDS, then you must live with it, but not give it to others.

Dear Paul,

Who defines what the good and bad things of our society are? My definition of bad things includes religion, new age, rock and country music, TV sitcoms, supermarket & lift music, war, militarism, patriotism, respect for authority, faith, racism, mining, advertising except for classified, panty hose, the arms trade, sustainable growth, wine, dogs except for cattle & sheep dogs, guide dogs, huskies and Samoyeds, fracking, money politics, chaplains in public schools, Newscorp, bush poetry and Olympics and other sporting competitions that are orgies of nationalism and commercialism for a start. I doubt that anyone would or should trust me to define what is bad.

A restrictive society forbids what is not expressly permitted. A permissive society allows what is not expressly prohibited. I favour the latter.

Materialism does drive our economic system. I also question our economic system. Apparently the countries with the smallest gap between rich and poor along with political freedom and the basics provided for everyone are the Scandinavian countries. Those countries still have flaws. Denmark is over-status conscious and conformist. The Scandinavian countries are capitalist but a kinder and gentler variety than ours.

Western materialism? I don’t think materialism is a particularly western phenomenon. The spiritual east is more of a stereotype than a reality.

@david f, Saturday, 13 June 2015 6:44:56 PM

Thank you for the compliment.

While I might agree with your sentiments and would generally do the same, the later posts by Fox and her buddied-up Paul1405, while superficially agreeing with you betray their modus operandi and tactics most would reckon.

As usual, I will let others be the judge. I usually choose not to reply to the personal sledging. Because it is most often intended to take attention away from earlier posts where the offenders are on the back foot and are applying their Plan B, disrupting the thread. Many would be aware that 'jokes' for example are also used to disrupt when their backs are to the wall and they can bounce off one another for a time until people lose interest in the thread.

So I will say to you that while your intentions are laudable, this is another thread that has been disrupted and doubtless will now dwindle away.

BTT

Anyone who denies that demand, directly attributable to the large scale immigration from growth and 'Big Australia' policies, is driving up the prices of housing in the large metropolitan cities and in Sydney as an obvious example, IS in denial. But why?

Lol!

"As usual, I will let others be the judge. I usually choose not to reply to the personal sledging. Because it is most often intended to take attention away from earlier posts where the offenders are on the back foot..."

And after the pot waxes lyrical calling the kettle black - he tops it off with a big fat "BTT".

Ya gotta laugh....

Poirot has dropped in to prove my point.

A certain thread killer.

BTT, for what it is worth.

Dear Paul,

Did you happen to watch "The Insiders," this
morning? An interesting programme especially
on the housing bubble in Sydney.

Another bit of interest - that Ben Eltham
pointed out that you might have missed:

"While Hockey owes 4 houses in trust with his wife
and father, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann owns
five, Malcolm Turnbull owns seven. Collectively
Australia's parliamentarians belong to a class of
wealthy landlords. Can we be surprised that they
seem quite happy with current housing policies
designed to drive up property prices or that they
seem to care so little for the problems of renters?"