Australia

[Badwater Bill]

I just read a post by Stealth Pilot and wondered where he is. I tried
to post it but it bounced. Here's another try before I give up.



Hey Stealth:

Aren't you talking more about the Lancair IV-P ? I know one went in
from a spin this summer down under. BTW, where in Aus are you? I
just flew around 1/2 the entire country in an RV-6 during the month of
September. We flew from melbourne to Bendigo, Mildura, Arkaroola,
Leigh Creek, Coober Pedy, Ayres Rock, Alice Springs, Cloncurry, on to
Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, then down the East Coast to MacKay,
Maroochydore, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, cut into Casino over to
Armidale, Temora, then back to Bendigo and Melbourne.

Took a month and about 30 hours of flying in the RV-6. Then we flew
to Hobart in Tassie. Toured all of Tasmania and left on the smoker at
Launceston back to Melborune, over to Auckland then back to L.A.

Australia was one of the most undeveloped and wealthy lands I've ever
seen. It's a treasure trove of minerals, from Uranium (the Beverly
Mine at Arkaroola), to Silver, Gold and Opals at Coober Pedy. Your
government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship however.
I found that the British left quite a bit of pomp in the government
officials I dealt with to get an Australian pilot's license. It was
suppose to be a rubber stamp, but it wasn't. They wanted me to walk
through their maze, which I had to do. I guess I'd call the
government a socialistic government with a strong "Green" movement
that stops all mining exploration or any exploitation of the vast
minerals and other forms of wealth there.

One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
they bought as a federal sales tax. That tax too is sort of incidious
because it's imbedded in the price of the item you buy. It's not
added on so you see it as an additional charge to something you
purchase.

With the fuel costs, and general items one needs to live, I sort of
figured your taxes are about 60% total of what you earn. I was
complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.

Oh, CASA is their equivalent of our FAA, the Civil Aeronautics Safety
Administration or something almost like that. They demanded that I do
absolutely everything with perfection and told me they'd have my
permanent license to me in 6 weeks. Well, it's been since the first
of Sept. and I haven't seen it in the mail yet. I'm not holding my
breath.

Australia was a magnificent sight to see in the springtime (Sept).
But when we landed anywhere in the interior the flies were everywhere.
They crawled up my nose, in my eyes, ears, everywhere. I had a hard
time fueling the airplane without stopping. When we'd fly into an
airport, we'd break a branch off a tree as a swishing stick to keep
the flies at bay. In Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the planet, I
asked the hotel owner who picked us up from the airport if the flies
were always like this and his response was , "No...they haven't
started yet since it's early spring."

We bought nets to wear over our heads at Ayres Rock. Alice Springs
was worse. The nets were manditory.

Funny how many flies there were on the interior and there were none in
the rain forests of the East Coast.

Flying from the East coast at Brisbane back to Bendigo then to
Melbourne we saw the most beautiful and largest agricultural region on
the planet. Talk about wealth. There were $trillions in production.
The agricultural region just kept going for 1000 miles. It was
overwhelming to see the vast riches of that region. It actually look
a lot like the entire area from Vienna, Austria to Budapest, Hungary
which was the riches region I'd ever seen until I saw that one in
Australia.

There are many things that have a profound place in my memory of this
trip, from the great wealth of that nation to the kindness of the
people. One of the biggest memories too is that there is absolutely
nothing in the interior of Australia, no rivers, no agriculture, no
roads, no people. There are only a few aboriginal people near the
four of five towns that exist in the interior. There are litterally
millions of square miles of desert. But the desert is pretty. It's
all got plant life on it. It's no sand dunes. The plants are all
different than the ones we have here too. Although hard to see from
the air, we spent a lot of time at each place, just browsing around
and walking in the desert, enjoying the strange and unusual plants.

That's about it. Time to somewhere else now.

BWB

[Ric]

> just flew around 1/2 the entire country in an RV-6 during the month of
> September. We flew from melbourne to Bendigo, Mildura, Arkaroola,
> Leigh Creek, Coober Pedy, Ayres Rock, Alice Springs, Cloncurry, on to
> Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, then down the East Coast to MacKay,
> Maroochydore, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, cut into Casino over to
> Armidale, Temora, then back to Bendigo and Melbourne.

You missed the jewel in the crown, Western Australia.

[jls]

"Badwater Bill" > wrote in message
...
>
> I just read a post by Stealth Pilot and wondered where he is. I tried
> to post it but it bounced. Here's another try before I give up.
>
>
>
> Hey Stealth:
>
> Aren't you talking more about the Lancair IV-P ? I know one went in
> from a spin this summer down under. BTW, where in Aus are you? I
> just flew around 1/2 the entire country in an RV-6 during the month of
> September. We flew from melbourne to Bendigo, Mildura, Arkaroola,
> Leigh Creek, Coober Pedy, Ayres Rock, Alice Springs, Cloncurry, on to
> Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, then down the East Coast to MacKay,
> Maroochydore, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, cut into Casino over to
> Armidale, Temora, then back to Bendigo and Melbourne.
>
> Took a month and about 30 hours of flying in the RV-6. Then we flew
> to Hobart in Tassie. Toured all of Tasmania and left on the smoker at
> Launceston back to Melborune, over to Auckland then back to L.A.
>
> Australia was one of the most undeveloped and wealthy lands I've ever
> seen. It's a treasure trove of minerals, from Uranium (the Beverly
> Mine at Arkaroola), to Silver, Gold and Opals at Coober Pedy. Your
> government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship however.
> I found that the British left quite a bit of pomp in the government
> officials I dealt with to get an Australian pilot's license. It was
> suppose to be a rubber stamp, but it wasn't. They wanted me to walk
> through their maze, which I had to do. I guess I'd call the
> government a socialistic government with a strong "Green" movement
> that stops all mining exploration or any exploitation of the vast
> minerals and other forms of wealth there.
>
> One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
> taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
> paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
> they bought as a federal sales tax. That tax too is sort of incidious
> because it's imbedded in the price of the item you buy. It's not
> added on so you see it as an additional charge to something you
> purchase.
>
> With the fuel costs, and general items one needs to live, I sort of
> figured your taxes are about 60% total of what you earn. I was
> complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
> and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
> 700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.
>
> Oh, CASA is their equivalent of our FAA, the Civil Aeronautics Safety
> Administration or something almost like that. They demanded that I do
> absolutely everything with perfection and told me they'd have my
> permanent license to me in 6 weeks. Well, it's been since the first
> of Sept. and I haven't seen it in the mail yet. I'm not holding my
> breath.
>
> Australia was a magnificent sight to see in the springtime (Sept).
> But when we landed anywhere in the interior the flies were everywhere.
> They crawled up my nose, in my eyes, ears, everywhere. I had a hard
> time fueling the airplane without stopping. When we'd fly into an
> airport, we'd break a branch off a tree as a swishing stick to keep
> the flies at bay. In Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the planet, I
> asked the hotel owner who picked us up from the airport if the flies
> were always like this and his response was , "No...they haven't
> started yet since it's early spring."
>
> We bought nets to wear over our heads at Ayres Rock. Alice Springs
> was worse. The nets were manditory.
>
> Funny how many flies there were on the interior and there were none in
> the rain forests of the East Coast.
>
> Flying from the East coast at Brisbane back to Bendigo then to
> Melbourne we saw the most beautiful and largest agricultural region on
> the planet. Talk about wealth. There were $trillions in production.
> The agricultural region just kept going for 1000 miles. It was
> overwhelming to see the vast riches of that region. It actually look
> a lot like the entire area from Vienna, Austria to Budapest, Hungary
> which was the riches region I'd ever seen until I saw that one in
> Australia.
>
> There are many things that have a profound place in my memory of this
> trip, from the great wealth of that nation to the kindness of the
> people. One of the biggest memories too is that there is absolutely
> nothing in the interior of Australia, no rivers, no agriculture, no
> roads, no people. There are only a few aboriginal people near the
> four of five towns that exist in the interior. There are litterally
> millions of square miles of desert. But the desert is pretty. It's
> all got plant life on it. It's no sand dunes. The plants are all
> different than the ones we have here too. Although hard to see from
> the air, we spent a lot of time at each place, just browsing around
> and walking in the desert, enjoying the strange and unusual plants.
>
> That's about it. Time to somewhere else now.
>
> BWB

Interesting narrative, Billy. Send us pictures of you posing with Steve
Irwin and his pretty American wife. Also some of the reptiles you handled,
you ol' swashbuckler you, like the fierce snake, taipan, and death adder.

Awaiting your next travelogue. Your friend, Larry

[smjmitchell]

> One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
> taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
> paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
> they bought as a federal sales tax.

I care ..... it is a bloody rip off compared to the US and Europe ! That is
the price we pay for the social wellfare system we run ...

I was
> complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
> and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
> 700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.

Not true .... I don't know exactly how many airplanes we have here at the
moment but my guess is that it is approx 15000 + all the ultralights and
homebuilts that don't carry a state VH registration number.

[Stealth Pilot]

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 23:03:24 +1100, "smjmitchell"
> wrote:

>> One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
>> taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
>> paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
>> they bought as a federal sales tax.
>
>I care ..... it is a bloody rip off compared to the US and Europe ! That is
>the price we pay for the social wellfare system we run ...
>
> I was
>> complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
>> and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
>> 700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.
>
>Not true .... I don't know exactly how many airplanes we have here at the
>moment but my guess is that it is approx 15000 + all the ultralights and
>homebuilts that don't carry a state VH registration number.
>
>
I almost missed all this.
recent outages in my isp's news server were almost the death of BWB's
post.
a beautiful piece of imagery.

the Stealth Pilot lives in Perth.

the post regarding the lancair was based on 3 lost aircraft and 6
fatalaties. at one stage 30% of the australian lancairs had been lost
during test flying or familiarisation flights by new owners.
undoubtedly there are a few models of lancair mixed in there.
one of our accident investigators with the atsb did a spreadsheet
calculating aircraft losses by design and was stunned that the lancair
sat on the top of the list with the highest statistic by far.

the stats regarding casa are pretty well correct. they date from the
late 70's when the department of civil aviation ran all the major
airfields, all the air traffic control, the accident investigation and
the regulatory side of things as one all encompassing entity.
the stat was that casa (or whatever its name was then) employed THREE
people per aircraft while the FAA employed 1 person per 15 aircraft.
needless to say a lot has changed since then though Oshkosh still has
more aircraft attending each year than on the australian VH
register.(which excludes ultralights, gliders, weight shift and
powered parachutes)

the thing that we get right in australia is the absence of weapons.
lots of us own guns and use them but we dont carry the things as a
routine thing. if the guy you meet isnt going to shoot you then you
will be more friendly and can have a more irreverent sense of humour.
I see that you noticed the difference.

the thing that we get wrong is that we dont pursue technology as much
as we should. the stupid troglodytes (greens) have a grip on the place
and stifle all innovation. our manufacturing has all been shipped to
china because they are 5 - 10% cheaper and of course it is always
easier to piggyback on a country as large as the USA than to get the
finger out get on with life ourselves.

btw as a W8 tailwind pilot myself I have no problems with lancairs as
a design. if they were being given out I'd have one in a flash :-)

Stealth Pilot

ps the outback desert area is known in australian aviation as the
GAFFA which translates as the great australian f**k all. 'cause
there's f**k all out there but knee high scrub and rabbit burrows.
it is GPS country for sure.

[Chris Lasdauskas]

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 03:39:25 UTC, (Badwater
Bill) wrote:

>snip

> Australia was one of the most undeveloped and wealthy lands I've ever
> seen. It's a treasure trove of minerals, from Uranium (the Beverly
> Mine at Arkaroola), to Silver, Gold and Opals at Coober Pedy. Your
> government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship however.
> I found that the British left quite a bit of pomp in the government
> officials I dealt with to get an Australian pilot's license. It was
> suppose to be a rubber stamp, but it wasn't. They wanted me to walk
> through their maze, which I had to do. I guess I'd call the
> government a socialistic government

! This is John Howard's government you're talking about. I know they
call themselves 'the Liberal Party' which would be confusing to most
Americans, but they aren't (mostly) Liberals, and Howard in particular
is a very Conservative Conservative. I know you probably ran across
some tings which are leftovers from previous governments eg our
Medicare system, but Howard is out to obliterate those things. (And
they weren't 'socialist' anyway, just a different mix of
government/business to the US)

> with a strong "Green" movement
> that stops all mining exploration or any exploitation of the vast
> minerals and other forms of wealth there.

No, that's not true either, their is plenty of exploration and
exploitation going on, but the Greens are very good at getting media
coverage and the anti-greens love to claim they are stopping all
progress, so it might look like they are i control. They aren't, and
Howard and his government are definitely not Green.

> One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
> taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
> paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
> they bought as a federal sales tax. That tax too is sort of incidious
> because it's imbedded in the price of the item you buy. It's not
> added on so you see it as an additional charge to something you
> purchase.

The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
40%. Yes we pay GST, but previously we paid sales taxes which it
replaced so the result is about the same. On the up side we don't pay
state taxes like the US seem to do. If you find a study comparing
international tax rates - where all taxes, levies, stamp duties etc
are included, you'll find that Australia is in the lower part of total
tax range, probably (though I am going from memory here) lower than
what some parts of the US pay.

>
> With the fuel costs, and general items one needs to live, I sort of
> figured your taxes are about 60% total of what you earn. I was
> complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
> and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
> 700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.

Can't prove or disprove that, but it doesn't sound right, especially
the second figure..

>> Australia was a magnificent sight to see in the springtime (Sept).
> But when we landed anywhere in the interior the flies were everywhere.
> They crawled up my nose, in my eyes, ears, everywhere. I had a hard
> time fueling the airplane without stopping. When we'd fly into an
> airport, we'd break a branch off a tree as a swishing stick to keep
> the flies at bay. In Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the planet, I
> asked the hotel owner who picked us up from the airport if the flies
> were always like this and his response was , "No...they haven't
> started yet since it's early spring."

Didn't he explain to you why you saw so few choppers? We train the
bigger flies instead.

> There are many things that have a profound place in my memory of this
> trip, from the great wealth of that nation to the kindness of the
> people. One of the biggest memories too is that there is absolutely
> nothing in the interior of Australia, no rivers, no agriculture, no
> roads, no people.

Now I know you are hyperbolising, as you amend this a few lines down
.... :) There's plenty there, you just didn't see it :)

> here are only a few aboriginal people near the
> four of five towns that exist in the interior.

4 or 5 .... oh Billy!

>There are litterally
> millions of square miles of desert.
Did anyone tell you there is/was a cattle station in the Northern
territory that's bigger than Texas?

> But the desert is pretty. It's
> all got plant life on it. It's no sand dunes. The plants are all
> different than the ones we have here too. Although hard to see from
> the air, we spent a lot of time at each place, just browsing around
> and walking in the desert, enjoying the strange and unusual plants.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, come again, soon.

Chris

[smjmitchell]

> The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
> part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
> 40%.

This is incorrect. Our top personal tax rate is 47% you pay that on anything
over approx $50K. I for one definitely pay more than 40% of my total income
in personal income tax. The same would go for any other professional unless
they are cooking the books.

[jc]

Chris Lasdauskas wrote:

<snip>
>
> The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
> part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
> 40%. Yes we pay GST, but previously we paid sales taxes which it
> replaced so the result is about the same. On the up side we don't pay
> state taxes like the US seem to do. If you find a study comparing
> international tax rates - where all taxes, levies, stamp duties etc
> are included, you'll find that Australia is in the lower part of total
> tax range, probably (though I am going from memory here) lower than
> what some parts of the US pay.

What country are you in - certainly not Australia

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/12333.htm&mnu=5053&mfp=001

shows

Over $70,000

$18,612 plus 47c for each $1 over $70,000

The above rates do not include the Medicare levy of 1.5%.


--

regards

jc

LEGAL - I don't believe what I wrote and neither should you. Sobriety and/or
sanity of the author is not guaranteed

EMAIL - and are not valid email
addresses. news2x at perentie is valid for a while.

[Badwater Bill]

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 09:52:18 +1100, "smjmitchell"
> wrote:

>> The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
>> part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
>> 40%.
>
>This is incorrect. Our top personal tax rate is 47% you pay that on anything
>over approx $50K. I for one definitely pay more than 40% of my total income
>in personal income tax. The same would go for any other professional unless
>they are cooking the books.
>


That's what I thought. I talked to a lot of people who claimed they
paid much more than 50% of everything they earned when including GST.

Bill

[Badwater Bill]

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 18:00:57 +1100, jc > wrote:

>Chris Lasdauskas wrote:
>
><snip>
>>
>> The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
>> part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
>> 40%. Yes we pay GST, but previously we paid sales taxes which it
>> replaced so the result is about the same. On the up side we don't pay
>> state taxes like the US seem to do. If you find a study comparing
>> international tax rates - where all taxes, levies, stamp duties etc
>> are included, you'll find that Australia is in the lower part of total
>> tax range, probably (though I am going from memory here) lower than
>> what some parts of the US pay.
>
>What country are you in - certainly not Australia
>
>http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/12333.htm&mnu=5053&mfp=001
>
>shows
>
>Over $70,000
>
>$18,612 plus 47c for each $1 over $70,000
>
>The above rates do not include the Medicare levy of 1.5%.


As I said above, I thought this was correct. Thanks for backing it up
for us.

BWB

[Chris Lasdauskas]

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 17:58:57 UTC, (Badwater
Bill) wrote:

> On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 09:52:18 +1100, "smjmitchell"
> > wrote:
>
> >> The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
> >> part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
> >> 40%.
> >
> >This is incorrect. Our top personal tax rate is 47% you pay that on anything
> >over approx $50K. I for one definitely pay more than 40% of my total income
> >in personal income tax. The same would go for any other professional unless
> >they are cooking the books.
> >

My correction (in two different posts) doesn't seem to have showed up
- I was misremebering it and quoting the coproate rate which is now
30%.

However in the last tax year to have paid over 40% in income tax you
would have had to have had a taxable income of something like 180,000
and this tax year it would be 200,000. Most people on that sort of
income+ spend some of it on accountants etc to lower their tax bill.

>
> That's what I thought. I talked to a lot of people who claimed they
> paid much more than 50% of everything they earned when including GST.

It is certainly possible for the sample you would most likely
encountered - aviation is not a poorman's hobby in Australia.
>
> Bill

Chris
--

[Chris Lasdauskas]

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 17:59:40 UTC, (Badwater
Bill) wrote:

> On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 18:00:57 +1100, jc > wrote:
>
> >Chris Lasdauskas wrote:
> >
> ><snip>
> >>
> >> The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
> >> part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
> >> 40%. Yes we pay GST, but previously we paid sales taxes which it
> >> replaced so the result is about the same. On the up side we don't pay
> >> state taxes like the US seem to do. If you find a study comparing
> >> international tax rates - where all taxes, levies, stamp duties etc
> >> are included, you'll find that Australia is in the lower part of total
> >> tax range, probably (though I am going from memory here) lower than
> >> what some parts of the US pay.
> >
> >What country are you in - certainly not Australia
> >
> >http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/12333.htm&mnu=5053&mfp=001
> >
> >shows
> >
> >Over $70,000
> >
> >$18,612 plus 47c for each $1 over $70,000

At the point that you start paying 47c on your next dollar earned
($70,0001) the average you are paying is only 26.6% (18612/70000)
> >
> >The above rates do not include the Medicare levy of 1.5%.

Which is a compulsory health insurance collected through the tax
system.
>
>
> As I said above, I thought this was correct. Thanks for backing it up
> for us.
>
> BWB
Chris
--

[[email protected]]

We host the fellow and then he denigrates our country! If it was a
dictatorship we could ban the ill-mannered windbag from entering again.
Albert

Badwater Bill Dec 17, 7:39 pm Subject: Australia
Your government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship blah
blah ..
BWB

[[email protected]]

We host the fellow and then he denigrates our country! If it was a
dictatorship we could ban the ill-mannered windbag from entering again.
Albert

Badwater Bill Dec 17, 7:39 pm Subject: Australia
Your government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship blah
blah ..
BWB

[Chris Lasdauskas]

On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 06:07:29 UTC, wrote:

> We host the fellow and then he denigrates our country! If it was a
> dictatorship we could ban the ill-mannered windbag from entering again.
> Albert
>
> Badwater Bill Dec 17, 7:39 pm Subject: Australia
> Your government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship blah
> blah ..
> BWB
>

Now, now, Albert, you have to remember he's a septic. They think
everything is better there and that their model is democracy, so
anything different isn't.

I know you and I would find it puzzling that a person can get elected
'president' by less than half the people voting at an election,
especially when only about 30% of the electorate even bother to vote,
and we might might feel the need to point out the dictatorial aspects
of said 'president' being able to declare war on the rest of the world
without first getting approval from a parliament, let alone the
populace, his use of propaganda to control public sentiment ... but
we must constrain ourselves and remember that they don't know any
better.....

:)
Chris

besides which, he has a point - I mean, John Howard!
--

[Bashir]

wrote:
> We host the fellow and then he denigrates our country! If it was a
> dictatorship we could ban the ill-mannered windbag from entering
again.
> Albert
>
> Badwater Bill Dec 17, 7:39 pm Subject: Australia
> Your government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship
blah
> blah ..
> BWB
You don't understand, Albert. He feels the same way about America.

[Ron Webb]

"Chris Lasdauskas" > wrote in message
news:mPcurcJnILSl-pn2-ZXPFVu33yGSI@localhost...
> On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 06:07:29 UTC, wrote:
>
> > We host the fellow and then he denigrates our country! If it was a
> > dictatorship we could ban the ill-mannered windbag from entering again.
> > Albert
> >
> > Badwater Bill Dec 17, 7:39 pm Subject: Australia
> > Your government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship blah
> > blah ..
> > BWB
> >
>

Albert

Allow another American to apologize on behalf of most of the rest of us. In
Bill's defense though - that was the politest I've ever seen him ;^}.

As for Australia's political system - You have a "Parliamentary Democracy" -
we have a "Republic". Both have their good and bad points. And both look
better than the other to their own.

What really puzzles us, as Americans, is the economic system. Socialism will
lose to Capitalism every time...I suspect that's what Bill meant.

[Jerry Springer]

Ron Webb wrote:
> "Chris Lasdauskas" > wrote in message
> news:mPcurcJnILSl-pn2-ZXPFVu33yGSI@localhost...
>
>>On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 06:07:29 UTC, wrote:
>>
>>
>>>We host the fellow and then he denigrates our country! If it was a
>>>dictatorship we could ban the ill-mannered windbag from entering again.
>>>Albert
>>>
>>>Badwater Bill Dec 17, 7:39 pm Subject: Australia
>>>Your government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship blah
>>>blah ..
>>>BWB
>>>
>>
>
> Albert
>
> Allow another American to apologize on behalf of most of the rest of us. In
> Bill's defense though - that was the politest I've ever seen him ;^}.
>
> As for Australia's political system - You have a "Parliamentary Democracy" -
> we have a "Republic". Both have their good and bad points. And both look
> better than the other to their own.
>
> What really puzzles us, as Americans, is the economic system. Socialism will
> lose to Capitalism every time...I suspect that's what Bill meant.
>
>
Why the hell do people do that? You probably don't speak for anyone here.

[[email protected]]

Ron,
I've lived and worked in the U.S. and was in the Australian army in
Vietnam and was in locations where I faced the enemy with U.S. troops
so I know American characteristics well. They are generous and open
people - just like most people around the world when you get to know
them.
There's no excuse for publicly badmouthing another man's country as
Bill did.
Cheers,
Albert

Ron Webb wrote:
> Albert
>
> Allow another American to apologize on behalf of most of the rest of
us. In
> Bill's defense though - that was the politest I've ever seen him ;^}.