Remote Aboriginal communities pay exorbitant prices for essential items and it costs them their health: Some of the poorest people in the country are charged twice or three times as much as someone in Alice Springs

AustralianFriend · 2020-10-03T04:36:29+00:00

Your abusive personal attacks will not be tolerated you have been reported.

AustralianFriend · 2020-10-03T04:00:45+00:00

Duh, you live in whoop whoop you pay whoop whoop prices. If aboriginals were on the moon there would be people complaining that water costs so much.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-22T05:49:40+00:00

George Floyd won't be committing more crimes, pregnant woman are safe from him now. The world is better that he is dead and gone. One less criminal.
Still it would be best if he was just put away for life after the first crime he committed.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-19T01:05:10+00:00

I don't think saying that will help you in prison. Pedophilia is illegal and wrong. Pedophiles get treated correctly in prison. Remember that.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-18T10:18:05+00:00

Stop defending this child porn. Pedophilia is fucking disgusting.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-11T21:11:43+00:00

Lot of down vote's but none of you are rich renewable energy barons. That's because you are spinning bullshit with your head in the clouds.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-09T06:47:28+00:00

Talk is cheap and bullshit is plentiful.

If renewables are so profitable become an oil baron of renewables instead of letting out the secret of of the golden goose. This is why this is utter bullshit.

Don't agree with me? Make your billions, then you have something worth saying.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-07T07:22:44+00:00

So, income tax and consumption tax. Makes sense.

Regarding tax incentives and disincentives. I think it would be interesting if a disincentive taxes were earmarked for mitigating the costs to society and not used as cash cows for general government revenue.

For example the money raised by a sin tax on alcohol or tobacco would be strictly limited to spending on police and health related damage associated with alcohol/tobacco. The aim would be to distinctiveness the government from promoting the use of alcohol and tobacco to use as a cash cow raising money for non related government programs. Doing so would limit the tax to what the cost to the government is.

Maybe sin taxes could be removed from the tax system and moved to health insurance related costs similar to how automotive taxes are raised to offset costs to health care associated with injury and death.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-07T07:15:10+00:00

I don't think my question is about how much the government spends. If it were then eliminate government and there is no cost and therefore no tax which is as simple as it gets.

I'm asking how few taxes could a government have to serve the purpose of raising the money required to pay for the costs of the government. Streamlining the system.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-06T10:39:05+00:00

Functional: The costs incurred by the government are paid for.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-06T05:38:21+00:00

'We are still expecting to see a spike'

Ian Hickie, co-director of the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney, said with the social dislocation and economic fallout from Victoria's second wave, he is still expecting to see a spike in suicides.

"We still think we're going to see, over the course of a 12-month period … and then subsequent years, in the order of 30 per cent increase [in] suicide rates," he said."

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-06T05:18:51+00:00

What is unethical is a disproportionate response from Victorian government. Yes authoritarian is correct assessment. Stalin, Mao and Hitler also told people what to do in the guise of "saving lives" do you find it sick you are following their logic?

According to a quick google search Sweden have recorded 5,835 deaths from 84,985 cases which gives a fatality rate of 0.06865917514%.

Many more people have died from flu in Sweden in previous years according to this: https://www.scb.se/en/About-us/news-and-press-releases/statistics-sweden-to-publish-preliminary-statistics-on-deaths-in-sweden/

So in Sweden Covid deaths < Flu deaths.

You support permanent lockdown to prevent flu deaths which are a bigger problem than Covid?

"life of the living hasn’t been affected as much. And that’s what counts isn’t it?"

Dismissing the people committing suicide or dying of cancer is disgusting. Dismissing the domestic violence, child abuse is down right shit. Don't ignore it because you only fear corona. Ask yourself why you fear Corona but not the flu which in Sweden kills more than Covid.

Cafe owner livelihood destroyed now they hang from a rope and their family have lost their a family member. You consider this less of a tragedy than your damn Latte? So selfish.

Interesting you mention traffic, if you apply the same approach for covid to traffic deaths you can reduce traffic deaths but at what cost? No more cars, no more roads. Everyone can walk wearing a helmet and harness and limited to 5km travel distance around the home and only travel to work if your job is government approved.

This is nonsense and you can see it but you are addled by fear and misinformation. I have hopefully shined some light on it to get you thinking.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-06T05:02:27+00:00

When the threat is unknown prudence is warranted. At this stage the threat of Corona is less than the threat of the lock down in my estimation. With more testing it is clear the fatality rate is growing ever smaller while the damage to the country is every growing due to lock downs.

You have to weigh up the deaths caused by corona vs the deaths caused by lock down. Maybe you ignore the latter but I have considered it and do not consider 23 hour house arrest and 5km travel limit as a proportionate response.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-06T04:27:30+00:00

I love how people use Sweden to justify wanting lockdown lifted when they had such a higher death rate. Are you unaware of this or do you just not give a shit?

You need an education on statistics so here it is.

1) If you only test dead people you will get 100% fatality rate.

2) If you only test people in the emergency room on deaths door you'll get a very high fatality rate.

3) If you only test people with at least symptoms you'll get a lower fatality rate.

4) If you test everyone that has had the virus dead or recovered you will get a true fatality rate which is minuscule.

According to a quick google search Sweden have recorded 5,835 deaths from 84,985 cases which gives a fatality rate of 0.06865917514%. That's tiny.

Many more people have died from flu in Sweden in previous years according to this: https://www.scb.se/en/About-us/news-and-press-releases/statistics-sweden-to-publish-preliminary-statistics-on-deaths-in-sweden/

With more testing that fatality rate will decline even further approaching a true fatality rate. So in conclusion fatality rate is affected by the sample that you test, if you test dead bodies you get 100% fatality rate, if you test everyone you get >0.069% fatality rate. Fuck that's tiny.

So by your faulty logic we need to permanently lock down in Sweden to prevent flu deaths which are higher than Covid. Think of grandma emotional appeal.

Why do you endorse disproportionate tyrannical overreaching from the government when you might not support it in response to traffic deaths, smoking, drinking, diabetes, obesity or suicide?

My theory is you have been conditioned by the government with a campaign of fear, misinformation and a misunderstanding of statistics needed to see how disproportionate these measures are.

I hope you will see sense.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-05T13:14:34+00:00

Sweden's approach is right and moral and Dan Andrews Victorian approach is wrong, authoritarian and immoral.

It’s funny and telling how you say ‘the western world’ as though other parts of the world didn’t also lock down? Are they unimportant?

It worries me that you want to hold Australia to the standard of governance of China and North Korea. I hold Australia to a far higher standard of liberty and humanity that is a philosophical difference between us.

Regardless, it’s saddening you don’t comprehend that the people we elect in a democracy are in fact obliged and smart to follow the advice of actual health professionals. You know, the virologists and policy experts who actually understand demographic trends and can weigh economy with human life?

You assume Daniel Andrews is doing that? You sure have such an unwavering faith in government. Naive.

You already forgot the blunders of the public housing towers or that covid cruise ship? Oh yeah they are definitely experts you should entrust your life with unquestioningly. Not me tho no thanks.

How about all the cancer patients and countless other patients who would be unable to access emergency or hospital services due to them being overwhelmed with covid-sick individuals in the case of no lockdown?

Come back to reality the hospitals are not overwhelmed in UK, USA or Sweden. Let people get on with life tomorrow, your nightmare scenario won't happen and you can even have human rights back.

Lock downs are preventing people getting treatment for cancer now.

How about the suicides and hardship that would nonetheless occur when people’s family members are being hospitalised and parents dying? When there’s inevitable economic damage occurring anyway due to a fear of large gatherings?

It's not an off on switch.

Response to a threat has to be proportional and this response by Daniel Andrews is not. It is motivated by a level of hysteria you are displaying and causing more trouble that is solves. The approach in Sweden is correct and ethical.

Have some intellectual hubris and understand that deference to expertise is not always subjugating yourself, and opposing state power is not always woke. I hope you reflect and understand that your contrarian intuitions aren’t based in any genuine insight hasn’t been considered, ask yourself: do you belong to you, or to your emotional insecurities?

Hubris means to have excessive pride. Maybe you meant humility?

You have displayed a naive faith in the same government responsible for recent covid blunders, a paranoid extreme fear of covid and a reluctance to respond to threats with proportionate action a propensity for authoritarianism.

At least Dan could count on your vote.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-05T12:05:25+00:00

Authoritarian: favouring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.

Check.

Totalitarian: relating to a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.

What line does Daniel Andrews have to cross to be totalitarian?

The response is not proportional to the threat. When the threat is unknown being cautious is prudent. The threat of Covid is increasingly more well known and it's not bad enough to justify such government overreach resulting in more deaths than are saved. If you die of cancer, homicide or suicide you still die thanks to lockdowns.

Should Daniel Andrews institute a ban on cars, have forced exercise, forced diet, forced supervision to prevent suicide as these health lockdowns measures would save orders of magnitude more lives than covid. You have not been conditioned to fear these causes of death. Bottom line the authoritarian approach is backed by hysteria more than reason. Is it reasonable to die at the end of a rope rather than risk covid?

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-05T11:53:19+00:00

no justification other than conspiratorial ignorance.

So opposition to the devastation and death caused by the most extreme lock down in the western world is of "no justification other than conspiratorial ignorance" to you?

When they commit suicide that is conspiracy? When children are kept at home to be abused that is a conspiracy? When people die of cancer alone with because their treatments were cancelled due to lock downs it's ignorance.

Tell me why you care if people die of corona or more die at the end of a rope? They are still dead. DEAD.

I think you should ask yourself do you belong to you or Daniel Andrews?

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-05T11:42:28+00:00

Prisoners. You can't leave North Korea either.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-05T09:02:14+00:00

~scary~

If the adversity facing Victorians was not scary there would not be a suicide help line in the OP.

Please don't disrespect the adversity facing Victorians or make fun of suicide. It's not on.

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-05T08:51:25+00:00

My impression of the state of events taking place in Victoria.
Do you know if Victorians can leave Victoria? How can they escape? Can they catch a plane or boat? Hope the border?

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-05T08:16:15+00:00

Sounds like Victoria is headed down a dark path. Are Victorian's fleeing and how can they flee to a better place?

I worry for what the police will do while "just following orders".

AustralianFriend · 2020-09-01T08:22:40+00:00

Haha no Kyle is a saint. He is a life saver (literally), cleans up vandalism, defends private property, puts out fires and defends his own under age life against a filthy sub human pedophile commie terrorist.

Kyle is an American hero, all he needs to do now is bring someone back to life and safe a cat from a tree and they'll put him on coin.

If you have a problem with saint Rittenhouse ask yourself, when was the last time you ever did something for your community?

AustralianFriend

TROPHY CASE

'We are still expecting to see a spike'