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Rich and American? Australia Wants You
An anonymous reader writes: Following the success of a millionaire visa program to attract wealthy Chinese, Australia has launched an invite-only visa program that promises citizenship to rich American entrepreneurs. To meet the requirements of the Premium Investment Visa plan Americans must first invest around 15 million Australian dollars. Reuters reports: "Investment advisors who have been briefed on the plan by government officials expressed doubts about the wisdom of targeting Americans, with several telling Reuters the more obvious place to start was Australia's Asian neighbors. After all, why would a successful U.S. entrepreneur want to invest a large chunk of cash in Australia — a country very similar to the United States, just further away from everything — in exchange for a passport that carries few additional benefits to their own? 'The U.S. has some problems that Australia doesn't have. It's got a lot more racial crimes, it's got a lot more gun-related crimes, but I don't think that is going to drive a whole bunch of ultra-rich Americans out of their country,' said Bill Fuggle, a partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie who advises wealthy Chinese migrating to Australia."
Constitutional freedoms are for poor people. Rich people have money to pay for the freedoms you wish you had.
Which is owned by an ex-Aussie, and is convinced that Obama's such a disaster that the rich are clamoring to leave.
And I won't be surprised if that gets them some takers. Particularly if the GOP can't get it together and start getting a consistent lead on Hillary.
There'll probably be a few more who do it because they want a rich democracy's passport,and don't like the fact the US taxes on global income (ie: if you make $1 Million in China and you;re Swedish you pay no Swedish taxes on it, just Chines; if you're American you pay both).
Great stuff, should increase the average IQ of both countries.
... Don't take it the wrong way... but I like the bill of rights. Put something in place that forbids the government from overstepping its bounds to any extent and Australia will be very interesting.
Short of that... you're an interesting vacation destination. A nice place to visit but I need something like the Bill of Rights to call a country home.
Too many people died to institute and then preserve that... and far more will die in futures to come.
Australia does things all the time that just casually violate what I consider to be sacred rights. They just ban things... for the children. I can't have that. The gun thing is also important. I'm not a gun nut... but I believe I have a right to be dangerous in my own country and in my home. Not for hunting... not even for self defense... to be DANGEROUS. I feel that is an important check on anyone that would try to intimidate the people. If they understand that the people can and will turn on them with an instant militia of millions. That forces the elites to be careful.
I know my views are incomprehensible to many. And that's fine. Its what I need to immigrate. Without that... I refuse. You're not offering me real citizenship in my opinion if you don't offer me a reasonable set of iron clad rights in the package.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
I'm American and I could probably get about 15 million lira together if you give me a few days and will take a check.
On second thought, I'm not very well traveled so I'd appreciate it if someone could help me with the monetary conversion. Australians accept lira, or do I have to convert to Foster's beer for payment? If so, I'll let them keep the change and just give them the entire six pack.
That's the kind of rich I am, ladies, and there's more where that came from.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
It's got a lot more racial crimes, it's got a lot more gun-related crimes,
On average, yes, but crime is a local thing. Areas of Sydney have drive-by shooting from middle-eastern crime gangs, and plenty of cities in the US are very safe.
I don't know why rich Americans would want to leave - it is the poor people who are much better off in Australia. (unless they dream of buying a home)
That sounds like a more enticing reward.
I mean, basically any western democracy where you don't need to have an army to protect your wealth is pretty awesome if you are rich. Other than tinfoil hat syndrome (e.g. James Cameron - moved to NZ) why would you limit yourself to a smaller place that you can visit, buy a mansions in, and even smuggle your dogs in on your private jet whenever you want to anyway?
Really the debate needs to change to asking why an Aussie, who enjoys arguable a better standard of living than the median American, can't reasonably freely immigrate to the USA if they feel like it and vice versa? They could just start with a one-in one-out system so that there is no uncontrolled effect on population size, and limiting access to social services is a no brainer. That is the problem with this immigration debate, it gets so fixated on countries full of impoverished unskilled people trying to get to the richer country, yet the only thing they seem to actually change (as in the UK for example) is to make immigration harder for the educated middle-class from countries you might actually want to exchange people with.
So, you'll take all of the coked-out Hollywood detritus? Please?
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Don't bother. We're full. We have a housing crisis and the cost of living in a major city is criminal.
I pay $450/wk rent for a two bedroom unit 40 mins from Sydney. Young people growing up here have no chance of owning a house because we have an influx of Asians who have moved over and bought all our property, paid for by their rich parents.
He's right. It's a trap!
You moved your mouse. Please restart Windows for changes to take effect.
Though, I suppose if you're a millionaire, you can afforde the tax advisors that sort things out for you.
You do know that no Australians actually drink Foster's, right? That's the stuff we flog to foreigners.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
Or a HQ Monaro if you're a purist.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
You forgot Chicago, where Democrats have been in charge for so long, elections are "non-partisan" because it's a one-party system, baby!
" a country very similar to the United States... The U.S. has some problems that Australia doesn't have. It's got a lot more racial crimes, it's got a lot more gun-related crimes"
Australia has twice the burglary rate and a higher rape rate. Australia has a ban happy nanny-state government. Australia has a lot of race crimes against Aborigines that just aren't reported in their pop media. Australia's cost of living is almost twice what it is in the U.S. Australia still has a fucking queen.
Australia is like the U.S. except with the fun and awesome parts removed, and instead replaced with the U.K.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
What do you drink, then?
Don't take the piss out of Fosters, it needs all the flavour it can get!
Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
Yep, just what we need... more cashed-up bogans.
You do know that no Australians actually drink Foster's, right? That's the stuff we flog to foreigners.
You drive a hard bargain. I'll send you a six pack of beer we don't drink and beer we flog to foreigners. One six pack of Foster's and one six pack of Bud Light.
Drink the Bud first and then use the Foster's simultaneously wash away the taste of the Bud, drink something that resembles a beer, and be both humbled and amazed by the fact we can make a beer so crappy it makes you enjoy the crappy beer you guys produce. Then be thankful that I didn't send over Bud Light Lime. Yes, that's a thing and it probably tastes as bad as it sounds.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
https://www.danmurphys.com.au/...
Personally its a bit like VB but a little less B.
Still not as good as Coopers home brew or coopers retail.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news. Kangaroos breed like rabbits. If you come to Australia and visit the cities you'll probably see some in a zoo. If you come to Australia and visit any rural area (most suffering severe water shortages) you'll find them on the back of a pickup truck, culled and on their way to a butcher where they'll be sold for next to nothing for pet food.
Up here if you own a rural properly and hold a current gun license you're basically guaranteed an order to cull 1000 animals. Once you've hit your quota, providing you still own a rural property and still hold a current gun license, you're guaranteed a licence to cull a further 1000 animals. And so on, and so on. Pretty much the only way you'll ever be denied is if you've been caught killing them for skins only, being a cruel cunt leaving animals to suffer (e.g.: not dispatching the young), or doing sick shit like mounting kangaroos to fence posts and so forth (sadly, there are a few people this fucked up over here).
I've heard the system is a little better down in NSW, though only a little better, and only because of commercial sale licenses (for export and the like).
I tried applying for Australian citizenship once but they turned me down as I didn't have a criminal record.
The US has a similar plan, the EB-5 visa program, but you only need to invest $1 million to get your green card.
I say, if we're going to let people bribe their way to the front of the immigration line, we should get top dollar for it. $15 million sounds about right, plus $2 million paid directly to the government, and used to hire more immigration workers to clear the ludicrous immigration backlog for everyone else.
*Especially* since a good chunk of those buying green cards are Chinese businessmen and government officials fleeing corruption charges in China: if we're going to be complicit in fraud, I want a bigger piece of the action.
Oh, and by the way, ever notice that Americans who're furious about people "skipping the line" in the immigration process never complain about this program? Seriously the only mention I can find over on Fox News is concern that Mexicans are doing it, despite the fact that for every Mexican EB-5 visa applicant, there are 200 Chinese.
I don't understand why guns always come up when non-Americans talk about America. I have lived here my entire 30 years, IN THE SOUTH, and have not seen a single gun in public except in the hands of a police officer. I own guns and most of my family do as well. But I've never seen them in public.
That's great! As soon as alllllll the richie richers leave, the entiiiiiire USA can be like Detroit! It's gonna be fucking awesome!!
Not a problem. The US and Eritrea are pretty much the only countries in the world that taxes non-resident citizens. Usually I would question any policy only followed by a single other country, but in this situation I can see why a country might like to have such a policy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Giving up your US Citizenship might help your unborn children's tax situation, but might not help yours:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"U.S. citizens who renounce their citizenship are subject under certain circumstances to an expatriation tax, which is meant to extract from the expatriate taxes that would have been paid had they remained a citizen: all property of a covered expatriate is deemed sold for its fair market value on the day before the expatriation date, which usually results in a capital gain, which is taxable income."
right after the UK. Australia has gone down the facist daddy state road at high speed. It is quite amazing how UK/AUS/NZ continue to out do even the US.
That article is about campaign contributions
And New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Miami...
Funny how you fools only ever name the cities with underlying racial problems going back generations and blame their problems on Democrats, while ignoring all the other traditional Democratic run cities that are run away successes.
Because the US is the only country in the world that taxes it's citizens regardless of where they reside
Not completely correct. There is also Eritrea, in the Horn of Africa if you couldn't recall where it was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Any policy that is only also shared by a single other country has got to be a well thought out one, no?
Well, there's that, but I always had a thing for the yellow Falcon interceptors.
That's great! As soon as alllllll the richie richers leave, the entiiiiiire USA can be like Detroit! It's gonna be fucking awesome!!
But what about the Aussies? Can their immigration infrastructure handle hundreds (if not thousands) of immigrants who list their names as "John Galt"?
Pretty much anything but Fosters :-D
I pay $450/wk rent for a two bedroom unit 40 mins from Sydney.
Is that US$? If it is, consider yourself lucky.
Why would an entrepreneur go to Australia and pay even higher taxes there than in the U.S. when they could immigrate to some country that has little or no taxes and let's them rule like a Andreew Ryan-esque god?
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Seriously, most Australians and Brits probably have no idea how pointless it is to bring up stuff like this:
What most foreigners consistently get wrong when looking at our crime stats is failing to note that the overwhelming majority of our gun deaths either have a criminal or a suicidal person on the receiving end of the bullet. Since it's illegal in all 50 states and DC to shoot someone over a non-violent offense or even a violent misdemeanor, that almost invariably means that when a criminal is shot it's either by someone who by definition doesn't respect the law (fellow criminal) or someone about to be on the receiving end of a violent felony.
I can't blame them for this misunderstanding. Our gun control lobby is notorious for manipulating stats by doing stuff like putting gangbangers near the age of majority, who are both eligible to be prosecuted as adults and involved in serious crime when killed, as "children" under the death stats. That's about as bad as most countries refusing to count the death of premature babies on their mortality rates and mocking us for our higher mortality rate because we record those as infant deaths.
Your example of being "notorious for manipulating stats" by clasifying people "near" the age of majority as children seems pretty disingenuous. Are these people younger than the age of majority or older? If they are in fact younger than that age and only "eligible to be prosecuted as adults", why would it be "manipulating stats" to clasify them as children? If they are older than the age of majority, and thus presumably not even eligible to be prosucuted as children, why wouldn't you state that?
It is interesting that statistics can be difficult to compare when dealing with things like crime or death stats. It is also interesting how easy it is to dismiss uncomfortable conclusions. I wouldn't say we are being "mocked" by other countries and I doubt very much that anyone is "refusing" to count things - they just do their statistics different (despite our feelings of importance, most countries are too busy worrying about their own troubles to spend much energy over ours). In any case, any careful look at the state of afairs does reveal that we certainly have room for improvement. Our full term mortality rate is higher than it should be.
http://www.livescience.com/479...
"...the U.S. infant mortality rate for babies born at 37 weeks or later (considered "full term") was actually the highest among the 12 countries, and about twice the rates in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland."
I suspect that you probably misunderstand the feelings of foreigners when thinking about the USA. While you might not care that "the overwhelming majority of our gun deaths either have a criminal or a suicidal person on the receiving end of the bullet", it is at least possible that those foreigners are appalled that we seem to think that it is acceptable that criminals and suicidal people are being killed. It can be seen to speak to the value that our society places on human lives. The USA is exeptional in many ways. Unfortunately not all of those ways are things we shold be proud of.
Why would an entrepreneur go to Australia and pay even higher taxes there than in the U.S. when they could immigrate to some country.../p>
If they are "going" then they are "emigrating" not "immigrating".
Overall, just using "migrate" is probably better as it's independent of the point of view.
e.g.
http://www.vocabulary.com/arti...
Many areas of the country are like that. Running as anything but a Republican in many red states is just as laughable as running as anything but a Democrat in Chicago. That, of course, assumes that there's even enough distinction between the parties to claim that we have a two-party system with a straight face.
They already have an annoying rich person that has excessive influence. Now Australia wants rich foreigners also? How about looking for anyone that's decent to help in any way possible. Looking just for the rich is reverse lobbying and quite lazy.
There is a persistent romantic sentiment in the US that Australia represents a sort of America that could have been. This announcement is designed to appeal to those who haven't been staying aware of the Euro-style surveillance that now pervades Australia, and the monopolies that keep the cost of such things as travel and broadband a lot higher than they should be, and the steady loss of rights in recent years.
What they don't tell you: Australia's new DTCA laws jail technologists and entrepreneurs
http://defencereport.com/australias-defence-trade-control-act-clamps-down-on-researchers/
http://www.cla.asn.au/News/defence-pilloried-by-senate-test-pilot/
http://delimiter.com.au/2015/07/13/cryptographers-issue-belated-complaint-about-defence-trade-controls-fix/
No Bill of Rights in Australia, no free speech in Australia, and corruption that would make Boss Tweed blush.
One, from personal accounts, and from what I see in the mass media, on a whole, Australia seems to have more than a few raciest tendencies (sorry non-raciest Australians)... So that might be one reason they are targeting America, VS Asia. They didn't say it, but I'm willing to bet that a significant percentage (90-99%) of people in America that actually have 15 million bucks in the bank are all white anyway.
Two, I was watching Family Feud the other day, and the American contestant was asked the question "if you had to live in any foreign country, which would it be?" The #1 answer was "Australia" so it could be that Americans already perceive it as a good destination as another reason to target the US. That said, the real funny part of that story, is that the contestant's answer was actually "'Murica!", I shit you not. As a Canadian I was a little insulted we got no mention at all... :(
I know from looking at emigration sites software developers are a demand skill there, but unless one is rich, it's hard to make that kind of move. Anyone know of any Australian companies that are hiring Americans and paying for relocation?
No? Then fuck you Australia.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
Canada has something like this for a $120k investment, for the record.
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
Seriously? C'mon, there aren't that many racial crimes in the US (I'm guessing a racial crime means white on black crime?).
We've just had a few cases that have been blown up by the 24/7 news media. It isn't like we're over here beating each other up when we see someone different walking across the street. Geez.
I'd dare say most people in the US couldn't give a fuck about what their fellow citizens are doing. Most of us are way too busy trying to support OUR own families and get ahead in life and enjoy life a bit.
Most of us here don't have the time to go out of our way to suppress or commit crimes against another race different than ourselves.
It isn't even on most of our citizens' daily life radar.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
These so-called rich visas used be in the $500K to $1000K range until recently. Basically you'd prove that you had the funds to live on and would not be a welfare case. However in recently years the Chinese snapped all such visas in the US and Canada and probably the rest of developed world too. The US and Canda ones are suspeended for further study.
You have to love the " even higher taxes " as if the USA were a high-tax regime already and Australia barely manages to top it. For the "Rich people" at issue, the USA has some of the lowest taxes anywhere. Jamaica has lower top-tier taxes than the USA does (or anybody): only 15%. Why not move there? English spoken, close to the USA, sunny beaches.
No, seriously, libertarian types: why not Jamaica? There is no "Galt's Gulch" in the real world (we're sorry) but you could move to Jamaica. I can't figure out why they don't.
Not as easy as all that.
For instance, Portland (OR) is successful not because of its governance, but because it's surrounded by huge corporations in adjacent cities/counties which are decidedly not Democrat-controlled (e.g. the Intel Corporation has numerous fabs in nearby Hillsboro, Nike is headquartered in Beaverton, etc). Few folks actually live inside Portland's city limits unless they're either very wealthy or very homeless - I think the exceptions are all found east of the river, and most of those neighborhoods are being gentrified all to hell as I type this. Instead, most folks live in the surrounding cities... which again are not Democrat-controlled. To top all that off, PDX hasn't been controlled by the Democrats for as long as most cities.
Seattle isn't too much different, truth be told... Like Portland, they began their swing leftward in the 1980's-1990s. I'm willing to wager that Miami started shifting at around the same time.
NYC? It swings back and forth, going as far left as Dinkins, until everyone gets sick of the squalor and elects someone like Guiliani to clean it all up. Then they slowly go back towards the DNC again.
San Fran is a bit of an exception, but is supported by a massive existing set of industries that cannot easily move.
Kind of surprised you didn't mention LA...
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Rather he's saying "if it weren't for racism and micro-cultures of poverty"
Like Portland, they began their swing leftward in the 1980's-1990s.
It's not really that Portland swung left but that everyone else swung right.
That claim is particularly weird because the pitch is targeted at wealthy Americans.
Yeah, sure, there are plenty of places where you have uncomfortably good odds of 'racial crimes', or garden variety getting mugged and/or shot; but wealthy people generally don't live in them. That's one of the perks of having enough money to live in the nice part of town. The people you want just don't really have to worry(they might anyway, like the nuts ranting about how talk of 'inequality' is just a step away from sending anyone not on welfare to the death camps). Unless there is a supply of people who just really want to live a long way from anywhere(flights to Australia aren't exotic or anything; but they are very, very, tedious); they'd better have a more relevant set of issues.
I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that the really wealthy generally spend less time whining about taxes and more time creatively structuring their assets so as to not pay them; and can also afford, if they want, to live under just about any tax structure worldwide, so their choice of residence and citizenship is based more on preference and perceived advantages than on economic necessity. They may still dislike paying whatever taxes they can't avoid; but not enough to put themselves to any great personal inconvenience or hardship about it.
The less wealthy, but wealthy enough to feel exploited by the tax system, whine more loudly because they have fewer options for lowering their effective tax rate(high-salary skilled workers, say, tend to resent getting taxed at income tax rates rather than capital gains rates); and because they are relatively poor enough that the marginal value of the assets they lose to taxation is higher(if you are really rich, taxes may offend you in some abstract sense; but they don't really change your ability to enjoy basically anything money can buy; if you are merely wealthy, taxes aren't putting you in the bread line; but they quite possibly are reducing the range of things you can afford.)
The somewhat less wealthy are also presumably less able to insulate themselves from their environment. A suitably large fortune will keep just about anything except the central government at bay(this is why so many Russian oligarchs hang out in London); but the smaller the fortune the lower the degree of cost-effective insulation you can manage. This makes Jamaica's relative poverty, very high crime, poor corruption ranking, and mediocre HDI somewhat less attractive.
Full disclaimer: I'm Australian. Spoiler: It's a trap! More?: We're like America (well, our government tries to be, at every opportunity), only without your wonderful constitutional freedoms!
Have you been under a rock? Free Speech zones? 135k fines for refusing bake a cake and a gag order to not speak about it and how the ruling violates, separation of church and state, the "congress shall pass no law preventing free exercise of religion" and freedom of speech?
The bakery in question had sold numerous cakes to gay people including that "couple" in the past but refused to create a specific cake as a matter of conscience.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
You also forgot: Seattle, NYC(ish), San Francisco, etc etc etc. Heck even Kansas City has been democrat controlled for awhile.
WTF Slashdot, why do I have to login 50 times to post?
Yes, illegal might become a citizen, nay a patriot. While you are abandoning your flag when you become an exPATRIATE. Why does this surprise you?
WTF Slashdot, why do I have to login 50 times to post?
So consider yourself lucky.... for a 2bedroom in the suburbs of seattle (redmond area) I pay $2500/mo. In SF area I paid $3200, heck in Kansas City suburbs (olathe area) I paid $1400/mo.
WTF Slashdot, why do I have to login 50 times to post?
This really has nothing to with safety or kangaroos and more to do with our stagnant economy, lack of ingenuity and our governments desperate attempt to bring in more money.
Hell we're letting the Chinese tear up perfectly good agricultural land for some stinkin' ore mine (until it poisons the water). The Indonesians don't want our beef and no one wants to swallow the bitter pill.
I disagree (disclosure: I live here).
Before the 1980's, Portland was staunchly conservative; there was a church on practically every corner ( the vast majority of which were Catholic), and it was considered a working-class town with those particular values (albeit the strip clubs and etc were thriving from Burnside northwards, etc).
All one has to do is to check the political parties of successive mayors, really.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
It's not a problem with black. It's a problem with gangster society, which transcends race - Whites, Hispanics, Orientals, Blacks, you name it, all have been pulled in.
Racism is idiocy. Recognizing that a subculture is toxic is just common sense.
Most people are too busy trying to appear politically correct to make any sense at all when these issues come up. A good number of the rest are far too deeply mired in their own prejudices to understand what is actually wrong. Between the two, it becomes very difficult indeed to have any hope for remediation.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Plane ride? Flight? Oh, no. No. Those cattle cars are for you, little taxpayer.
Travel to and from Australia is just more time on the yacht with one's skimpily clad companions.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
So you want our politicians and judges and lawyers all to go to Australia? Can't say I see much downside to that. Well, for the US, anyway. Would owe some pretty deep sympathy to Australia, though.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Yep. The high income taxes levied by a nanny state government only serves to prevent people from becoming rich. Less incoming competition for old money. That is why socialism is so popular in Europe...the smart, old money there knows how to keep their power.
The real path to male liberation
But at least you can buy roo meat in supermarkets for decent prices.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
Going by the commercial offerings(you can probably do it faster if your yacht is built like a clipper ship and runs like hell all the way); that's somewhere between 20 days and 3 months. Those scantily clad companions had better be of a 'highly stimulating nature'; because that's a long time, even compared to flying coach.
That's great! As soon as alllllll the richie richers leave, the entiiiiiire USA can be like Detroit! It's gonna be fucking awesome!!
But what about the Aussies? Can their immigration infrastructure handle hundreds (if not thousands) of immigrants who list their names as "John Galt"?
The same way the US will handle issuing hundreds (if not thousands) of passport application listing their names as "John Galt".
And the dismantlement they'll get when they arrive here and find we have things like laws and expect people to conduct themselves within their bounds.
This is an invite system, which means if you become applicable the government already knows a lot about you.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
No, seriously, libertarian types: why not Jamaica? There is no "Galt's Gulch" in the real world (we're sorry) but you could move to Jamaica. I can't figure out why they don't.
Apparently there really is a Galt's Gulch in the real world and its turning out exactly as we expected.
Seems its a giant scam for people who are silly enough to believe in libertarianism. Ironically, it's very free market of the scammers.
Now I've actually lived in places where you can almost literally get away with murder if you've got enough money. There are things that are accepted there that Libertarians will never be able to live with. I'm yet to find one that doesn't treat foreigners as second class citizens. In Thailand or the Philippines where I lived if you crossed the wrong local, you'd best get out of dodge before the day is out. Any argument between you and a local will result in the local winning. You get used to a two tier pricing system because "Farang (Thai: White/Western Foreigner) have more money". Sure I could ride a motorbike without a helmet if I wanted to, but the made up fines by the cops were a complete pain in the arse when they saw I wasn't Thai.
Libertarians wonder why I laugh uncontrollably when they talk about oppression and how it would be so much better if we didn't have these "nanny state" rules. I've lived in the opposite of a nanny state and their heads are in the clouds.
Point in short, in a land without rules, those with power make up their own. A libertarian paradise has the same probability of occurring as a real life Hogwarts.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Thats because they're wrong.
You've got no idea how Australia is or works.
A "bill of rights" was described by your previous president, George W Bush as "just a piece of paper" and has been ignored without consequence many times before him.
Australia works on the premise that freedoms are not protected by paper, but people. We have our 5 fundamental freedoms (Speech, Association, Religion, Assembly and Movement) codified in the constitution but its still up to the High Court of Australia to rule on them and they do an overwhelmingly good job of it. If people stop defending freedom and rely on a piece of paper to do it for them, that piece of paper becomes as useful as those defending it.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
No? Then fuck you Australia.
Dearest gun nut.
Stay the fuck out of Australia.
Signed,
People who are happy not having mass shootings every second week.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Personally, I have two very nice microbreweries within easy driving distance. But since you asked, here's the top ten by market share.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
For when Bernie becomes president, the Dems-who-are-Dems, not DINOs, take control of Congress, and we tax interest and dividend income at the same rate *I* get taxed at, instead of Romney's 14%.
Wonder whether the big companies will let their CEOs telecommute....
mark
The US doesn't.
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
Pro: Still have muscle cars available. Shutting down local car industry, though
Con: have to drive on the wrong side of the road. Crime against nature and Jesus.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Seriously, most Australians and Brits probably have no idea how pointless it is to bring up stuff like this:
What most foreigners consistently get wrong when looking at our crime stats is failing to note that the overwhelming majority of our gun deaths either have a criminal or a suicidal person on the receiving end of the bullet. Since it's illegal in all 50 states and DC to shoot someone over a non-violent offense or even a violent misdemeanor, that almost invariably means that when a criminal is shot it's either by someone who by definition doesn't respect the law (fellow criminal) or someone about to be on the receiving end of a violent felony.
I can't blame them for this misunderstanding. Our gun control lobby is notorious for manipulating stats by doing stuff like putting gangbangers near the age of majority, who are both eligible to be prosecuted as adults and involved in serious crime when killed, as "children" under the death stats. That's about as bad as most countries refusing to count the death of premature babies on their mortality rates and mocking us for our higher mortality rate because we record those as infant deaths.
But hey, if you want to outsource your basic daily safety to the state, more power to you. You have a rich tradition of subjection to royal and aristocratic authority. Who are we to judge your culture, even if it makes no sense to most of us how you can call yourselves "free citizens" when your electorate is basically at the mercy of your elites' willingness to use force?
Isn't it the gun manufacturers and retailers who have the most to gain from promulgating the fiction that you are liable to have somebody with a gun jump out from a tree and attack you, so you better arm yourself? That certainly seems to be the motivation among the most vociferous defenders of the Second Amendment on line. Not that the Second Amendment has anything to do with defending yourself against crazed juvenile delinquents.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
trying to get time to reply to you karmashock
My ism, it's full of beliefs.