• 7 Posts
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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: February 14th, 2025

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  • I’m grateful for modern medicine.

    I had a heart attack 2 years ago at 41. I’m not obese, and I’m reasonably fit and active, I just made some poor decisions and lost the genetic lottery.

    I got a re-sleeve and aparently my ticker is tip top again. I didn’t even need “surgery”. They just ran their magical fixerupper up my vein from my wrist.

    Not very long ago I would just be fucked up for the very brief rest of my life.





  • It’s a complex problem with no easy answers.

    The tax benefits are what has made property a wealth creation scheme, so the problem will only get worse until that’s addressed. Generous CGT exemptions, and negative gearing.

    Sadly Shorten demonstrated how little appetite Australians have for addressing that.

    The liberal policy of tax deductible interest, and the Labor policy of a 5% deposit, will only make the problem worse with increased demand.

    If a majority of Australians wanted to address this (they dont) then IMO the solution is land tax. Land tax on all properties with an exemption for your home, and Australian owned farm land.

    Then use the revenue from this for social housing. Build low cost housing, allow tenants to have some kind of rent-to-buy scheme.

    This way you’re making it less appealing to invest in property, and you’re presenting more affordable options, both of which will rationalise pricing over the coming decades.












  • That’s not really my take.

    Economically we’re much more dependent on our exports to China. Any hickup in that relationship hurts. We also export heaps of grain, livestock, and gas to a variety of destinations.

    IDK what we export to the US, other than some beef and bauxite, but it’s not much in the grand scheme. We were hit with the 10% Tariffs and our politicians were a bit “meh” about it. We didn’t bother with retaliatory tariffs.

    Politically we have had a close relationship with the US. Obviously their military assets are huge compared to ours. The US military bases in Australia aren’t here for our protection, they’re here because the US want’s a place from which to project power in our region.

    There’s a trilateral security treaty called AUKUS between Australia, UK, and US. That’s not all one way either - all three nations are making significant contributions for everyone’s benefit. There’s been some reporting on whether Trump will withdraw from this treaty - it would be disappointing but not a disaster. We’re a pretty enough dance partner.