Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We are well on the path to a socialist state in Australia. Tax the rich and suckle in to the teat of government. If this subject doesn't interest you, perhaps you aren't aware of what you are about to lose to government and the next financial crisis. Maybe a little less posting and a little more of the real world?

I would have thought most people interested in self sufficiency (aquaponics) are more than aware of the limits approaching? Who knows Chill, maybe you won't even be allowed to catch fish like that in the future?

I believe chilli's statement was about the discussion.... not the topic. And I agree, thats why I havent jumped in to comment either, because for the simple reason I gave up on government a long long time ago and nothing I do or say will get me anywhere. Im not going to waste my time talking about them and I dont get anything from discussions about them. If I did... I would be a member of a government forum.... *yawn*

Don't vote then charlie, seriously.
I don't.
Voting legitimises everything they are doing. Sure it's not a big thing in itself, but imagine if no one voted.. that would make it clear the people are not happy.

Voting for the lesser of 2 evils still legitimises the evil.

If you dont vote then you do not have a right to complain about the govenment as you did not take part in the process.

A female colleague comes for Slovenia, not socialists, but she says they have a similar system of high taxes in exchange for excellent community support/subsidies from the government. She seems to think most people are very happy as a result.

+1 on most of what u said, except I don't think the situation is completely hopeless.

+0.5....I don't think it's quite as straight black and white as that though.

So you are telling me that I can't complain if I don't vote for someone I don't believe will do the right thing by my fellow Australians ??

So who do I vote for before I can complain in your view ?
The most imcompetent or the least, even if the least is still totally incompetent in my opinion ?

Meanwhile millions of the most unhappy people in the world are thinking how much of an idiot you are for wasting your democratic right.


well exercise your other democratic right to run for office, and vote for yourself. If you are not willing to step up and make a real difference don't bother slandering those that are participating in the process of up holding your basic human rights, freedom, and general welfare.

Given the democratic process in place in this country, any suggestion that all government ministers and servants have evil intentions against the public can not be view as anything but conspiracy theory and an alarmist statement.

You can complain as much as you want without voting. But if you then repeat this process while still sitting back and complaining, don't expect people to take you seriously until you try and fix the problem.

A wise man once defined insanity as repeating the same experiment over and over while expecting a different outcome.

So are you saying that by voting, I am trying to "fix" the problem ?

Everyone votes every day. It is when you make the decision to buy something or not. I will not use ATT&T as a cell phone carrier because of the political causes they support. I also agree, if you aren't going to vote, you have no right to criticize. If there is a piece of legislation you don't like, contact your legislator and tell them how you feel in a constructive maner. A lot of times legislators have no idea how their constituents feel about something because the only feedback they get is from special interest groups. If the only person that your legislator hears from is a guy from Monsanto, how are they to know that they are going to pass a bill that could be detrimental to their constituents? They have to read quite a few bills every day, the repercussions of which are difficult to forsee. Also, befor blasting a piece of legislation, look at the reason that such legislation was created. Google the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, and you will find the seed of the New Deal.

You are correct. Voting by consumer preferences demonstrates the power of capitalism and the free market. It determines how each individual wishes to allocate economic capital and resources.

This is very different to voting for some politician with the basically the same policies as his "competitor"

If all of the disaffected would participate, instead of ignore, than the competition would have to be real. As it is, the "issues" are what have been carefully selected by some overly powerful people like Rupert Murdoc. Historically Edward Bernays was the conductor of such things. Parade the "issues" in front of people enough, and they believe they are the real issues. Perhaps the issue that corporate greed goes unchecked, and rarely punished should be the real issue. Perhaps the fact that the government's power is really quite limited, as it was intended to be, compared to corporate power should be the issue. Our governments did not cause the current economic climate, corporations did. Instead of looking at true credit worthiness, banks sold a product. They advised people to go ahead and buy that property with an adjustable rate mortgage. It can only go up in value. You'll refinance in a few years anyways to cash out the capital you have gained in it. I thank god that I didn't buy the pitch. I knew that it was a bubble, and waited for it to burst before I bought. Now I am in a fixed rate mortgage that I can afford every month, so even if the value goes down, it is still better than renting. Major corporations LIED about their income, then went suddenly bankrupt. There goes that stock. Switching to gold standard won't change that. I'm not saying gold is a bad investment. I'm not saying that I am opposed to switching back to gold standard. But what I am saying is that without government regulations, corporations would rape the population even worse than they have been. I firmly believe that less regulation is NOT the answer. When California deregulated power, Enron specifically raped California. Rolling blackouts were a ploy to suck money out of Californians. The slow dismantling of the New Deal has resulted in such occurrences.

A headache for starters