Originally Posted by Tannehill
Hi Ian,
Balance is everything. How about this: you work, you earn money, and the government keeps it ALL, but generously doles out set increments to you each week to pay for your gas, food, clothes, and entertainment, and socks the rest away in a nice little super fund. The increments are based on your education, your job's 'worth' and other nice 'fair' formulae. That would be reductio ad absurdum for 'mandatory' retirement contributions. Just as an aside, many government-linked institutions here (universities, etc) have similar 'mandatory' contribution rules for employees, so we're not all rogues in that regard. But my point is, that rule is paternalistic. A wise useful policy, but paternalistic. We have paternalism here, it's just that our line is a bit farther back than most other Western countries. And it's because we voted it that way. Perhaps our culture will 'come around' to the way everyone else thinks, because since everyone does it that way, it MUST be right, eh? I'll also point out everyone also thought the world was flat. So, perhaps not.
Asscrackistan is....well....this is a family forum, so best we just let it drop. :>
As for the rest, including 'American attitudes' I can pretty much guarantee that most Australian's perceptions of American culture and daily life are distorted, based on the aforementioned crap we export in the form of movies and TV. Our lives, values, and day-to-day routines are much more alike than different. Yet it's the extremes of American culture - the loud brash and arrogant-sounding - that make it across the Atlantic and Pacific. We tolerate, hell, we even encourage the eccentric behavior here. We have a robust legal system for protecting one's right to be eccentric, foolish, etc. Americans snicker and kinda admire the loud brash arrogance of the successful. Talking smack. Etc. And we'll smirk when they fall. My perceptions are that Aussies distinctly do NOT find that brash arrogance amusing or even a bit admirable, except on the footy field. Aussies pride themselves on an egalitarian humility even in the face of supremacy. But the tall poppy syndrome haunts your culture, too, I saw that in good measure. But these are all style issues, not issues of substance. The accomplishments remain, either way.
And Australians, like Americans, have a robust and Kevlar-coated sense of national pride and honor. And that is good and noble. But one's sense of national pride and honor should be based on one's own country's merits.
Your candle does not burn brighter for blowing out another's.
Yes, I've considered living there, but my family and job and my 'center' are here. Home is where the telescope is!
Not sure what you mean about us being apoplectic about Obama. It's neck and neck here, and most folks not Obama is more style than substance, while McCain is old and more conservatism than true reform. New and unknown, vs old and perhaps stale. Politics.
Cheers, and here's to enjoying the wild ride to come for all of us.
S
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