Down under is pretty alright if you ask me.

the international pressure over 'mandatory detention' in the NT a few years back, with even the un having a shot at us - what the fed. opposition and the bloody civil libertarians never told anyone was that that policy was for the 3rd offence, you got 2 other chances to smarten up your act!

Tampa 'crisis'. Again, sensationalism. I dunno, maybe you guys in the states dont care about illegals as much. we were getting literally hundreds of boats a year full of people who tried to skip the line to get into the country. Now, we get maybe 2 a year.

Detention of Illegal Immigrants. Lets see, they break a boatload of laws (pun intended) and arrive on our shores, and expect to be released freely into society! Whats worse, is there's a truckload of people who support the bloody idea! They go into detention so that 1 they can be punished for breaking our laws, and 2 they cant p!ss off somewhere to hide cos they know they really dont have a case.

Taxes. Generaly alright, except for there being 2 seperate taxes on petrol, one of which was to fund the duplication of a stretch of federal highway 24 years ago and then be dropped (the road is yet to be begun). Furthermore, everyone in the country knows that the petrol companies are ripping the hell out of us, quick to raise the price and slow to drop it. Past 3 years its gone up more than 30%! But, its not as bad as other places, ie Britain.

Politically, the sooner we get rid of the greens the better, they're bloody hippies who are led by a gay bloke who well and truly sleezed onto myself and a couple of mates a few years back at a convention (we were minors at the time). The sooner the Liberal party under howard toughen up even more and stops catering to the pansy-minded leftwing the better. And if you've heard about those draconion new industrial relations laws, have you heard that every person presented on the ads had lied point blank to the camera and thus the nation, whilst presenting their case as completely and utterly true?

We're in great shape, on the whole - better than most places out there, and def the UK - you gotta laugh, commit the crime and steal a loaf of bread, so the pommies send these 'criminals' out to a paradise where their offspring can live quite happily and kick their asses at cricket!:rotfl:

EDIT* And one thing the govt has just got to do is strip that d!ckhead sheik Alhilaly of his visa and kick him the hell outta the country. This bloke is an absolute disgrace, openly applauds the attacks against NY and the pentagon, supports attacks against foreigners in Iraq, thinks 30 years is too long for a bloke who led 18 ppl in a 18 hour long kidnapping and gangrape 'for being aussie', says that woomen who dont wear burqas and who dress immodestly are like pieces of meat - "you dont blame the wild cat for being drawn to attack the raw meat, why blame the young man for being drawn to do the same with women wearing revealing clothes". Oh and his latest is to say that muslims deserve Australia more than 'them' (namely white australians), because whites came here in chains as convicts and muslims paid their way.

Frankly, i vote that he is stripped of visa etc, and sent away. but cos i dont want more money be spent on him than necessary, take him to international waters, then dump him. some fish offal thrown overboard would also be nice, attract the sharks a bit faster.

I think the US is in a bad way for a variety of reasons, most of which can be attributed to downright ignorance and lack of practicality. Many think that the greatest threat to the overall health of the USA comes from immigrants, and that couldn't be further from the truth. Immigrants of all nationalities and religions will only make America a better place to be in the long run. Honestly, I will really get worried if the immigrants ever stop coming, because that means there is no more American dream and no more reason for this to be the greatest country on earth. Sure the new diversity these immigrants bring will cause some difficulty in the short term, but in the future America will be even stronger and improving all the time. People who panic and think that the English language will disappear and we will all be following Sharia instead of our constitution are so far off the mark. People wouldn't spend their life savings, leave their families, and risk arrest to come to another country just to make it like the one they left, that's absurd. Face it, the problem isn't America's newest residents, it's the ones who have been here all our lives and have either lost or never had an appreciation for what is important in this nation.

Australia does have one big problem, where in a drought!! It's considered the worst in a 100 years (the records only go back that far!) Every major city has water restrictions, some major towns have run out or have levels at extreamly low levels.

All levels of government have been slow to address this (Federal, State, Local). Some of their 'Fixes' leve alot to be desired.

Just one question for the rest of you, does anyone know of an effective rain dance???;)

lol yeh thats true, but soon enough la nina will rise again and we'll be complaining the crops cant grow cos they're waterlogged!

USA:

Quickly sliding down the slope of socialism. Huge minimum wages, social security benefits for illegal immigrants (I think the government just stands at the border handing out $100 bills and free cars now). The 10th amendment seems to have been flushed down the toilet.

The socialist aspects of our government make me sick. :damn:

I agree.

Divided.

I´m not so sure that those who have a minimum wage job would agree. The federal minimum wage is $5.15, that´s basically nothing! In the UK it´s $9.50, in France $10.70. I know that some states pay more than $5.15, but that´s still not "huge".

My mum has a property which is neither huge nor small (boundries are 1.5km x 4km), that is located west north west of Sydney located at Colo Heights which is about 2 to 2.5 hours drive from Sydney CBD. She is spending thousands of dollars on additional new water tanks because the dry spells are so long and in the past she has had to have water trucked in. This is all despite the fact the property has 4-6 tanks of varying size with the main house one being bigger than a normal sized swimming pool. If I knew of a rain dance I would have been on the first flight back home from England and up to Colo to do my dance. ;)

U-533,

Can you please provide evidence to support your assertion? How did you come to such a conclusion? Look forward to your evidence based reply. Thanks.

Yeah, $5.15 is way too much. i can feel the bile rising in my throat.

I mean how dare they?

I've worked for minimum wage. Those jobs aren't designed for someone to be able live comfortably. They're secondary jobs or jobs for kids. $10.70? Why should a company have to pay an employee that much? That just means that the costs of their service will skyrocket.

You aren't entitiled to anything. You have to work for it. There are plenty of programs available for poor people to go to college and work their way up. Sure, a lot of people get college degrees and new cars handed to them by their parents, but that doesn't mean that everyone deserves those things, just that life is unfair.

I should also note that these kinds of decisions should be left up to the states. It's not for the Federal Government to decide.

Minimum wage hasn't nationaly been raised in ten years. Its from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour over a two year period.
What people are entitled too is a fair wage and don't say employers pay what people are worth. Most pay the least they can legally get away with. You talk like a minimum wage earner is a piece of s#!t.
It's better holding a job then no job at all. What would life be like without minimum wage job holders? Someone has to do them.
A fair number of states have raised their minimum wage because the fed wouldn't. Try living in Connecticut on $5.15 an hour. It would be impossible. You can't even get a 14 year old babysitter for that.

Heavily edited to keep my opinion on those comments to myself.

Remember when I asked not to try and "correct" someone elses point of view? That simply leads to a back and forth argument which leads to an all out angry furious typing contest. I know it is so hard not to start shxt with someone you don't agree with, but please try!:roll:

Just for you so you won't be disappointed I'll put my :sunny: face on.