Work Choices: Another example of why it's fucked

[Dän]

Quite a while ago (15 years ago or so), I came to the realisation that our system doesn't work.

It doesn't matter who we vote for, they are all politicians...i.e they are in it for THEIR own benefit not mine.

The people that WE elect are supposed to represent US, not some party ideology.

If I was king, to "vote on party lines" while in parliament would be considered a conspiracy. Every politician should vote as their electorate would want them to, or on their own conscience.


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I agree. Plato even says that; Democracy is inefficient because too many people are too dumb to know what is best for them. Hence the leaders who arise are not always those best suited to running the country, but those who the people think are the best, based, to a large degree, on spin doctoring and the such. The best way to run a country is through a humane dictator, or as plato puts it, a philosopher king, who takes the country by the hand and leads it on the best path. Thus you get rid of the popularity contest; charm and appearance element to politcs, all of which matter nothing to the effectivness of a leader.

Politicians in a Democracy still do have a responsibility to represent the line of people who voted for them; Howard is the leader of the conservative party, and I would expect his policies to be right-leaning, if they weren't I would be annoyed, and so would others who voted for him. A PM can't merely be in it for his or herself, because if that were the case very few good policies would come about and that person would be voted out very quickly.

 

[Dän]

. They just know who they don't want to be there.

I think few people even know that. I think most know who their friends don't want there, and vote on the basis of that. Few people really give a shit, and thats where the problems derive from, people have to be held responsible for the leaders we get, if everyone cared and knew about a parties policies there wouldnt exist the need for politicians to win dumb arses votes and they could focus on running the country as opposed to winning votes.

Solution - pass an IQ test before you can vote

 

[Goreripper]

That wouldn't solve squat. Even highly intelligent people make bad voting decisions. Remember, Hitler didn't seize power. He was elected.

 

[Dän]

Yes, but whos to say that if you were around in 1933 that you wouldnt have voted for him? Terrible times, global depression, the loss of German prestige in the geopolitical world and there exists a charismatic person who is going to transform your world. Why would you not vote for him? His extreme rascist agenda wasnt fully apparent in that time, and there after voting was irrelevant.

Highly intelligent people don't make bad voting decisions, if they do they are not highly intelligent.

Labor would never win an election if dumb arses were banned for voting.

 

[Goreripper]

If the Liberal Party wasn't in a Coalition with the Nationals, they wouldn't have won an election (except the last one) since Menzies was PM. Labor always wins the majority vote, which technically has made every "Liberal" victory since the 50s illegitimate. If the Nationals split from the Coalition, the Libs would never win again. When they did split up in 1987, they got hammered so bad they joined up again. It's not a "two-party" system, it's a three party one, with two parties teaming up against the other one. It's got nothing to do with "dumb arses".

This link explains a lot:

http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2004/guide/prefhistory.htm

 

[Dän]

Labor have Unions $

Also, Swan wants to give tax cuts; surely even you would know what a terrible effect that will have on the already over heated economy.

Fucking retards are going to be running the country, they will have too much money and absolutely no idea of what to do with it. I'm going to be fucked when I want to get a Job if Rudd and Swan are running the show; inflation will be rife and interest rates will climb. Fucking duds.

 

[Shannow]

Unlike the current situation where inflation is rife (I'm not talking "underlying" crap, but things that families need, like food and stuff), and interest rates are rising ?

 

[salty]

[ * ] Fuck off pinko!

 

[Goreripper]

Even big business is calling for tax cuts in light of the surplus.

 

[Stonewall]

Gorey, big business is always calling for tax cuts.

 

[Shannow]

Labor have Unions $

Howard has business and the Bretheren.

I didn't see the ACTU running in the election. How are the unions comparable to the coalition ?

 

[Goreripper]

Because they are evil overlords who send trios of big boofy blokes around to shut down small businesses who don't hire union staff and make kids sign AWAs.

 

[Spiff]

And when Labor win the election shops will close down and "CLOSED DOWN BECAUSE OF UNIONS" will be painted on the windows.

Or so I'm lead to believe.

 

[Goreripper]

Gorey, big business is always calling for tax cuts.

That's true, but Dan just said it would be disastrous. So does that mean even business wants the economy to collapse?

 

[Southy]

As fro the Coalition thing, just look here in Qld, that is how the nation would be politically if they Nationals chucked a shit and split, we are a nation of majority Labor voters because we are a majority country of HARD WORKERS, something most conservatives know fuck all about


Also, I have always been against preferential voting, it seems like a system invented by parties that could never bloody win otherwise, it is all too shady and suspect in my mind

 

[Goreripper]

And when Labor win the election shops will close down and "CLOSED DOWN BECAUSE OF UNIONS" will be painted on the windows.

Or so I'm lead to believe.

Again, I was laughing so much when I saw that I forgot to be insulted. Maybe the unions can run an ad featuring Tinman with the caption, "Sacked for taking a sick day".

 

[Stonewall]

It wouldn't cause the economy to collapse, it would result in cuts in spending on health, education, roads etc, which we already actually see.

Business want tax concessions, infrastructure and energy subsidies, flexible labour (AWA and casualisation) and basically as few regulations on the way they do business as they can get.

Though it doesn't take much for a market to crash these days.

 

[Goreripper]

As fro the Coalition thing, just look here in Qld, that is how the nation would be politically if they Nationals chucked a shit and split, we are a nation of majority Labor voters because we are a majority country of HARD WORKERS, something most conservatives know fuck all about

The Nats are in cohoots with Labor in SA. Imagine if that happened at the Federal level. Not that it would, because the Nationals are even more anti-union than the Liberal Party.

 

[Southy]

Do the Labor party in SA need the nats though?

 

[Goreripper]

I'm not sure, but the Nats needed them considering the shellacking the Libs got.