rehctub,

"You're wrong Poirot, I do give a toss.

I give a toss about our kids leaving school after ten or twelve years not being able to fill out an application form for a job.

I gave a toss about people wanting or needing the most basic of operations, being sent home because the under funded hospital can't cope.

I give a toss about our pensioners, most if whom have paid taxes all their lives, not being able to pay the service call fee to see why their washing machine won't work."

Which, of course, all sounds rather altruistic and dripping with social consciousness and inclusion...except that you forget that I've followed your ramblings for quite some time here on the forum - and I know that you don't "usually" give the faintest damn for those you consider lower down the social order than your bourgeois self.

Have you turned over a new leaf?

"What I don't give much if a toss about are foreigners..." - yes that sounds like you...straight out of the Alf Garnett school of bigoted blathering.

"Btw, I have no problem paying taxes, my problem lies with how my taxes are distributed by incompetent people."

Well, paying a couple of companies $1.4 million a day to preside over abuse, would come under that umbrella, I should think.

Bazz, the reason I'm living in a business as usual world is that there is nothing to stop business from carrying on as usual.

You may be alarmed at our borrowing figures, but if you base your opinions on opportunities and threats rather than instinctively baulking at big numbers, there's really nothing to worry about.

We don't owe our creditors RMB. If they want yuan, they're free to buy yuan, but the Australian government does not owe our creditors anything in any foreign currency.

If we try to implement austerity then we may join other countries in the zero growth club. If instead we stimulate the economy, our economy will continue to grow. It really is that simple.

Of course we will be able to pay Singapore for our petrol and diesel! Our exports effectively pay for our imports. Should the value of our exports fall and the value of our imports rise, the market will adjust the value of our currency until it balances again.

Now a lesson in reality: the sun supplies us with an enormous amount of energy.

"Unless we stop exporting our coal & gas we will not have the means
to build the next energy system whatever that turns out to be."
How would stopping exporting our coal and gas help us exploit solar energy?

Aidan,

"If we try to implement austerity then we may join other countries in the zero growth club. If instead we stimulate the economy, our economy will continue to grow. It really is that simple."

Ask Bazz to look at the graph - and tell him that all those European countries (with debt to GDP that dwarfs Australia's) implemented austerity in the wake of the GFC.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/linkableblob/3727694/data/possum-graph-8-government-debt-as-gdp-data.jpg

.......Well, paying a couple of companies $1.4 million a day to preside over abuse, would come under that umbrella, I should think.

Too right Poirot, and I doubt I have to remind you that this is one of Rudds messes, conveniently left for others to manage, and the likes of you to criticize.

Now just on my attitudes geared others.

I'm sorry, but I don't care for single mothers who have six children to five fathers. Nor do I care for the wellbeing of doleblugers who whinge and complain about their dole cheque not streching far enough to provide them with booz and gigs for the whole two weeks. Nor do I care for those who scam the system by needing a full time cater on the off chance their knee might give out, when wheelchair bound people are seen working a checkout at the local K Mart.

The people I have no time or respect for Poirot are those who think the world owes them a living.

The people I do respect, are those either rich, poor or in-between, who try their level best and share the heavy lifting.

As for austerity V stimulus, you forget those European countries didn't have a mini g boom the likes unseen before.

So taking that boom away, where do you think we would have ended up under Labors watch?

You conveniently forget there is a huge difference between productive stimulus and waste.

rehctub,

"... Nor do I care for those who scam the system by needing a full time cater on the off chance their knee might give out..."

What a load of baloney - who gets a full time carer for a dicky knee?

Disingenuous of you.

"As for austerity V stimulus, you forget those European countries didn't have a mini g boom the likes unseen before."

You're a bit mixed up there, rehctub...Costello is the guy who failed to take advantage of the resources boom - giving most of it away in tax cuts and middle-class welfare (which is hard to shift once impemented and it's still with us)...he also sold our gold hoard at bargain basement prices, I believe. Also about two-thirds of the Howard govt's surplus was down to them selling off the countries prime assets, Telstra among them...but let's not talk about that.

Every respected domestic and international economist has recognised Australia's early and strong stimulus as the prime factor in our economy not missing a beat and us riding the GFC aftermath in healthy fashion....not that you'd ever admit it.

I'm sure you'd rather have seen us implement austerity like most of Europe did - and slump into recession - like most of Europe did.

We avoided recession (sorry about that)

No Poirot, we paid our way out of recession and it what all those hundreds of billions DIDN'T ACHIEVE that pisses me off.

Like it or not history shows that both the Rudd and Gillard governments resided over failure after failure and left unfunded bombs like the NDIS and the illegals for others to clean up the mess. The Abbott government tried to pull so e back but the people who enjoyed the win fall hand outs from Rudd wouldn't have a bar of it.

As for Howard selling our assets, yes, I agree with you on that, but ask yourself Poirot, why did he sell them? He sold them to pay down what was then massive debt accumulated from Labors mismanagement, there's a pattern there Poirot, can you see it?

As for dodgy caters, I've seen it first hand where a guy has a dodgy knee and his wife gets a full time pension just in case his knee gives out.

I also know a guy with a crook back, not broken like mine, just crook. He has nit worked for thirty years and says to centerlink, will you take liability for me if I return to work and become a cripple. He does work, but only for cash.

As for middle class welfare, how dare anyone give anything to those who actually contribute. Shame on them the spoils should be shared among those single mums with kids to multiple fathers, or those dole bludgers who continually scam the system or even our indigenous folk who live in remote areas where there is no prospect for work. Then again there's those uninvited guests that only came here for the gravy train.

Yep, we shaw are the lucky country Poirot, especially if you are one of the non contributors with their noses in the trough having made their way of life a generational problem.

Continued