OT: Current Affairs and Politics

[hindy111]

Don't need policies until the week before the election. Attention span of the average voter. They've got more important things to do like "How do I pay for this week's groceries?"

You're in charge of promotions

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

I've told this story before about unions.

When I was in the Anzac bridge project we needed to shut power off for a day which effected 60+ workers. We happily agreed to do it on the RDO. Being a contractor I didn't mind. They also offered us compensation to do it which wasn't really necessary but a nice gesture.
Then the union rep got wind. Made a few calls and it was cancelled.
Instead 60 guys basicaly sat in the lunch shed all day while 2 or 3 of us contractors did the shut down.

At a guess of approx $500 per workers that's 30k of taxpayers money.(government job)
Could of donated that to a charity or homeless person.

Some counters:

Let’s look at the corporate thieves, companies not paying tax, behold bank bosses earning $4m a year.

Let’s think about scum sucking insurers denying valid claims. I’ve met at 2 lawyers whose conscience kicked in and they left.

Oh I see the kindly Mr High Rise developer, bending over nice suburbs and turning them into slums with no infrastructure.

Your working person is the backbone of this country son. More than deserved of a couple of breaks in the cut and thrust of a long, hard, brutal and underpaid and undervalued working life.

 

[JohnStoppafarty]

Perhaps we should all get together and form our own party.
We'd need to start writing some policies

How about we nationalise mining and tie immigration to mining. You can only come in after 2 yrs in the mines.

 

[strider]

Perhaps we should all get together and form our own party.
We'd need to start writing some policies

"Cheaper electricity"

It worked last time.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Give all the long term unemployed a job and incentives to bring them back into the economy.

Take housing out of being a means of making a huge profit for venture capitalists and instead meet demand through government and public/private enterprises.

Make work from home the employees choice if appropriate. Employers to show cause.

Slow down immigration until infrastructure catches up and we can manage it better.

Put drinking age up to 20.

Take minor drug offences out of courts and into health areas.

Adult child rapists (after a fair appeals process) to get mandatory terms of 25 years to life.

Big breweries to be taxed for alcohol related crime.

Ban casinos, limit pokies to $1 a spin, max $100 per day.

Introduce restrictions on big tech and their spyware.

You Tube not allowed to increase volume for ads and limit ads during videos.

Enable low level road rule violators to work off fines and get a 1 point good behaviour bond for a year, except for bad breaches.

Reasonable limits on pet ownership in residential neighbourhood ( grandfather clauses).

Strike review on dodgy Local Council budgets.

Inheritance taxes $20m and over.

I got plenty.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Well it’s obvious @JokerEel that dear Gronkys ideas of what is left wing is conflated and confused.

He could really dine out on Marx. Would be totally life changing and he could find his inner @Gronk.


They didn’t have wokeys back in his day and my guess is that Marx would treat them all with the privileged lentil loving contempt they deserve.

 

[JokerEel]

Well it’s obvious @JokerEel that dear Gronkys ideas of what is left wing is conflated and confused.

He could really dine out on Marx. Would be totally life changing and he could find his inner @Gronk.


They didn’t have wokeys back in his day and my guess is that Marx would treat them all with the privileged lentil loving contempt they deserve.

Yeah, his definitions seem a bit all over the place. Marx probably wouldn't have much patience for the modern 'wokeys'...he was more about material conditions than Twitter discourse.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Yeah, his definitions seem a bit all over the place. Marx probably wouldn't have much patience for the modern 'wokeys'...he was more about material conditions than Twitter discourse.

He certainly was.

He should publish his philosophical manuscript.

I was listening to a critique of the US tariffs today.

The argument was that Trump should carve out and reduce tariffs for goods bought from overseas that are needed for American companies buying this stuff who are competing with overseas

If these US export companies are forced to buy more expensive US sourced goods, they won’t be able to compete with companies based overseas who are buying their stuff from the source, cheaper than the American exporters can.

So you have a well intended Tariff for the short term, but down the line you might be sacrificing more US jobs than you are saving.

But I guess that doesn’t apply to domestic sales in the US market.

The Toyota company, their US made cars never meet the standard of the Japanese made cars. A source of frustration as they’ve worked so hard on it.

I think US made products are ok, but I rarely need to use them ( that i know about). Their cars look like garbage, but probably better than the Europeans.

 

[JokerEel]

He certainly was.

He should publish his philosophical manuscript.

I was listening to a critique of the US tariffs today.

The argument was that Trump should carve out and reduce tariffs for goods bought from overseas that are needed for American companies buying this stuff who are competing with overseas

If these US export companies are forced to buy more expensive US sourced goods, they won’t be able to compete with companies based overseas who are buying their stuff from the source, cheaper than the American exporters can.

So you have a well intended Tariff for the short term, but down the line you might be sacrificing more US jobs than you are saving.

But I guess that doesn’t apply to domestic sales in the US market.

The Toyota company, their US made cars never meet the standard of the Japanese made cars. A source of frustration as they’ve worked so hard on it.

I think US made products are ok, but I rarely need to use them ( that i know about). Their cars look like garbage, but probably better than the Europeans.

Yeah, that’s the classic tariff paradox protecting domestic industries short term but potentially making them in competitive long term. The input costs argument makes sense, especially for exporters.

And agreed on Toyota..Japanese made ones seem to have that extra edge. US cars might not be pretty, but at least they’re not as finicky as some European ones.

 

[JokerEel]

Current and next US president

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Yeah, that’s the classic tariff paradox protecting domestic industries short term but potentially making them in competitive long term. The input costs argument makes sense, especially for exporters.

And agreed on Toyota..Japanese made ones seem to have that extra edge. US cars might not be pretty, but at least they’re not as finicky as some European ones.

Yeah, I’ve looked at videos of the Camry factories in the US and Japan and everyone looks focused and precise.

My family members who have European cars, they seem to have the most car problems. Known defects.

Its curious to me that the Europeans can design beautiful and robust interiors but ruin engines with cheap brittle plastics and faulty pumps etc. Stuff we were getting correct here in Australia more than 50 years ago.

And I like the Tesla, enjoy the tech…except it’s electric lol. It would be much better with a v6.

 

[Gary Gutful]

View attachment 98876


Current and next US president

Is Trump smiling or squeezing a nugget? It's hard to tell.

 

[King-Gutho94]

View attachment 98876


Current and next US president

You dont rate Big Mike's chances at the next election

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

You dont rate Big Mike's chances at the next election

No we can’t.

 

[Twizzle]

Don’t care, union is union comrade.

I’m pretty neutral.

as I said, lol

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

After that endearing post, i can inform the forum that one of our cars is up for rego again.

Now my beloved mechanic, he also sells tyres “Mr Re-tread”

So naturally, every time a car is up for rego, it inevitably needs a tyre or two.

#mtdruittlife.

 

[Twizzle]

how will they police this ? any ideas ?

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

how will they police this ? any ideas ?

It’s a spoof.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

This unwinnable war is reaching its end.

https://www.news.com.au/world/europe/zelensky-claims-putin-planning-war-with-nato-next-year/news-story/732cac6f05d22213b565d75f281d93c3

Zelenski is now resorting to further lies and bullshit in a final effort to save his position.

No one is cheering Putin, but he was always going to get away with it.

On behalf of the 700 000 people who have lost their lives, I think some warmonger awards are due for the arms manufacturers, the Biden administration, the incumbent European Union powers and all of those who cheered the ukkies on from the safety of their own habitats.

Next time you want to cheer on a regional war, take yourself off to the frontline to fight it.

 

[hindy111]

This is how I see it and what's happening in the world.

Ok right now we are wealthy compared to the general population around the world. Compare us to a kid in Asia for example.
But the East due to population is making more trades then the west basically to feed the people. On top of this being their people are worth less it also means they can sell and make things much cheaper. That's basically bring money into the country and as time passes their middle class will grow. That means more people can spend and become consumers. Buy education and fuel the economy even more. On the other side we are seeing it worldwide. The West. Middle class is becoming harder to get to. House prices are out of control. People are unable to spend as much.
Then we have the internet which has changed/ accelerated the process. A multi million dollar company in the US can be competing against a 16yld kind in India.

So eventually every human in the world will be the same value.
I mean a countries value are the people. Without people you hold no value.And it makes sense. Why should my value be worth more then some kid in Brasil?
Once this happens ( will take time but not as long as people think )
Once it does happen who will become the richest countries?
Well to it's obvious. The ones with the biggest populations. It will be all about human capital.

Fact - Average US person wage is 43k vs China and India which is 10k. With current wage growth in 10yrs all 3 will be on 55k.

People in west currently have better and more privileged lives. We use and exploit poorer nations.But with internet we've f**ked ourselves. Unfortunately our only way out now
if we want to remain privileged and rich is to start a WAR.