Dear Hassie,

Seems like you know what you're doing and have things
under control rather well.

Take care.

Individual.

Ah ha…but it all point to “ Liebestod” me thinks. A song sung over dead bodies…

Dan

One of the reasons we pay so much more for drugs here than overseas is due to our "Free Trade Agreement" with the USA.

One of the conditions of that deal was to extend the Pharmaceutical patent length of various suppliers by a number of years and guarantee the USA sole distribution rights, making it illegal to import certain drugs.

Another strange example was the USA/Canada trade deal that guaranteed USA the ability to compete with the local Canadian postal service. However the local service was so cheap and efficient that the USA companies couldn't compete effectively. As a result the Canadians had to raise the cost of their own service in order for the Americans to be able to undercut them.

due to our "Free Trade Agreement"
rache,
Which means the massive crowd of manipulating middlemen/women/others who maggot off the blood, sweat & tears of third World workers including children.
They import cheap & sell to us at immorally inflated prices. Their Taxes here help fund the largely non-productive middle class.
This symbiosis is the core of just about all our problems in our society ! This is most likely one of the key reasons for no local enterprise which would reduce the profit margin but would really benefit our economy !
These manipulators don't give a damn about our society fracturing left, right & centre.
That's why a National Service is desperately needed to save some human decency !

Despite the romantic fantasies, compulsory National Service is no solution to existing social problems in the 21st century.

Nowadays young people who choose to maximise their potential may go to University but will come out with a huge debt before they can even consider home ownership or start a family and are hugely disadvantaged, unlike the previous generations.

Forcing disaffected youth with limited hope for the future into involuntary service while putting their lives on hold, training them to kill with their bare hands and then turning them back out onto the streets?

rache.

I agree with your view on where Australian society is in reality, at this point in time.
And the last thing young Australians need, is to be fodder for another losing American war; especially another totally unnecessary European war.

My position on OLO has always been to identify the arrogance and disconnect of views from the over comfortable: All too often, old plonkers living out their twilight years under a gum tree.

Dan.